The process of comparing your business metrics to understand the performance of strategies and processes is called benchmarking. Benchmarking makes sure that the practices that are used for evaluation are best in the industry and the comparison is made against that.

It also helps to understand the current position of the organization compared to the best in the industry and help the management to decide a course of action to change or improvise current products or services. Constant improvement is the logic behind benchmarking.

9 Types of benchmarking :

Following are the most common types of benchmarking.

1) Product benchmarking

The process in which a company buys the product of a competitor and tears it down to understand its features and performance is called product benchmarking. Another popular term for this is reverse engineering since the company breaks a product to understand and then makes a product. Product benchmarking can be a very good tool amongst all the different Types of Benchmarking.

The company can either change a product entirely based on the competitor or it can improve certain features and relaunch the product. Advantages of product benchmarking that the help in improvement of own products vis-a-vis competitors’ products and if executed correctly they help to gain a sustainable competitive advantage in the long run. Readymade resources are available which have to be improvised and applied which in turn saves cost on research and development.

2) Process benchmarking

In this case, the question of how a certain company is performing better than others in certain cases or in its entirety is measured and compared with own company. The data may be collected by the process of interviews, surveys, market research, site visits, etc. The ultimate aim of process benchmarking is to replicate the processes of leaders to improve the results.

However, the company has to understand that while applying and following the processes of competition, all other factors should be similar and the processes need to be carried out in similar conditions, failing of which there may or may not result. Process benchmarking is a very common practice in the service industry.

The advantage of process benchmarking is an improvement in services of the organization which can be compared to the market leader, while the disadvantages include the processes can be difficult to follow and maintaining that standard would be challenging. In some cases, achieving those standards may be costly for the organization if it decides to improvise the existing processes completely according to the competition.

3) Competitive benchmarking

Competitive is one of the most popular types of benchmarking and is different from product match marking since in product benchmarking only a particular product is chosen for comparison wide and competitive benchmarking the entire product or process or service may be chosen with the direct head to head competitor.

The comparison name also includes studies of particular departments like finance, marketing, HR, research and development etc. The advantages of competitive benchmarking include a comparison of Apple to apple and it helps to know your competition in a better way, wise its challenges include it can be legally threatening for the company and understanding the competition might be difficult because of trade secrets. The competitors might provide misleading information which would not help to improve the processes in any way.

4) Functional benchmarking

Comparing results to an industry with which you do not compete directly is called functional benchmarking. The purpose to do this is to compare your results to the best in class practices and processes. A good example of this would be an airline company comparing their customer service two subsidy hotel customer service and no other airlines.

This is to let the customers know that customer service can be compared to something that is a benchmark in servicing. Advantages of this type of benchmarking are that they provide the information on industry trend and comparisons can be done quantitatively. On the other hand, their challenges are understanding corporate diversity and corporate colleges in different places can be a very exhaustive process and also common functions can be very difficult to find and understand.

5) Performance metrics

The numerical standard against which the processes of the client can be compared is called performance metrics. This is determined by analysis and details surveys are interviews in which the plants can identify the gaps in the performance and conduct own follow-up studies for determining better methods of improvement.

6) Generic benchmarking

Working and determining the mattresses such as cost per employee, profit per employee, revenue per employee or return on investment that provide a common basis of comparison irrespective of the industry is called generic benchmarking. Generic benchmarking is common in almost every industry and when it falls below a certain standard the management decides to take drastic measures.

In Sales, generic benchmarking is very common to determine cost and profit per employee. The advantages of generic benchmarking are that they are non-competitive and non-threatening and also have a broad and new perspective along with innovative processes. The challenges include that they can be difficult to identify best in class products or services and it takes a long time to plan and initiate generic benchmarking.

7) Internal benchmarking

A very common approach used by companies is internal benchmarking in which the compare the processes internally. The comparison may be between an employee of one department to the employee of other department or profits of one department vis-a-vis the profits of another department. It can also extend to one product line vis-a-vis another product line.

The idea is to keep the benchmarking inside the organization. While it is possible for large multinational and corporates to do internal benchmarking very easily on account of having a large number of employees and multiple divisions it is very difficult in case of small industries and startups.

8) Strategic benchmarking

This is used to develop the vision of a transformed organization to develop core competencies and help to give a sustained competitive advantage. Strategic benchmarking is important from the operational point of you of the organization. An important challenge with strategic benchmarking is that even a little deviation or a small error could affect the entire organization in an adverse way. For Startups, this is one of the popular Types of Benchmarking.

9) Global benchmarking

As the name suggests, the comparison is done with the corporates of different countries within the same or different industry. This comparison helps the organization to achieve a global benchmark and improve itself in terms of standards of many different organizations since the scale of comparison is different in different countries.

For example, Sprint, a telephone career in the US, will compare its services to Telenor, a telephone operator in Norway, to understand how could it serve the customers better and to achieve standards set by Telenor in Norway.

The above were all the different Types of Benchmarking a company can use so as to improve their processes, products and perform better then competitors.

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Strategy is a word when pronounced, the hearer picturizes a crouched person, alert and ready to attack at his enemy with focus, discipline and most importantly, with patience. In Business terms, Strategy could be understood as a plan to beat competitors. Add a prefix and it will define the respective term. Business Strategies is a business plan devised to beat competitors.

It was developed back in 1980 by Michael Porter and it was classified under Generic Strategies. Porter is known for “Porters Hypothesis”, “Porters Five Forces” and “Porters Four Corner Model.” Porter wrote that the generic strategy, whichever the company chooses, reflects the choices made regarding both the type of competitive advantage and the scope. In other words, the choice of the company determines the type of advantage they gain over competitors.

He classified them Types of Business Strategies – Cost leadership, differentiation, and Focus Strategies. Now commonly known as Porter’s Generic Strategies, they are commonly used by many firms worldwide. Porter suggested that any business firm can use only one strategy at a time and using multiple strategies is not advisable and would lead to the ultimate failure of product or firm in the market. The Types of Business strategies being used will depend on goals – short and long, target market, industry and competition of the firm. The success of these strategies will obviously depend if the firm is able to draw above industry profit margin while being the market leader.

1) Cost Leadership Strategies :

A strategy where the firm prices its products at the lowest possible cost, in order to penetrate and/or sustain its position of leadership is Cost Leadership Strategy. The appeal of the product is for cost-conscious people. In other words, the price-sensitive class of customers is the target segment of the firm and all the business activities are planned accordingly, right from procurement of raw materials to distribution and marketing. It is one of the types of Business strategies used by top firms such as Walmart and Amazon, who sell products on the promise of low costs.

Thinking from a company’s point of view, suppose a firm wants to manufacture cheap mobile phones. Now here, the means, as well as the ends of this, would be to keep the costs low so that the final product is priced accordingly while keeping the profit margins undisturbed. One way to achieve this is to reduce Operating costs which will reduce the production cost while retaining profits, another way is achieving economies of scale, wherein the firm will do a mass production by overusing the assets and third way would be maintaining a control over value chain like bulk buying to reduce procurement costs.

To reduce Operating costs, you need to standardize the product and achieve a humungous output. This reduces the overheads and spreads fixed costs throughout. The wages are low, the rent of area is kept low and only a few pieces of equipments are used to achieve a uniformity of product while reducing costs considerably. Even outsourcing in few cases can be considered as reducing the costs.

High use of assets is another way, wherein the company will keep high volumes of output while using their assets on a large scale to achieve larger output. Overuse of assets will cause the fixed costs to spread over the products, thus reducing per unit cost and achieving Economies of Scale. For many industries, this is a means as well as the end result to achieve a low cost of production and in turn, achieving cost differentiation.

To maintain control over the value chain, the firm should achieve control over all functional groups like procurement, finance, inventory etc. Procuring in bulk from a known vendor or unique access to raw materials, achieving high-efficiency inventory management (FIFO, LIFO), Just-in-time purchasing would be few ways to achieve this. McDonald’s initially achieved Cost leadership through a mix of all three methods. In the case of a service industry, a major player would be Air Asia, a low-cost Asian flight operator which operates only in Asia at a very low cost.

The cost leadership strategy can be utilized by large firms and market leaders but not by new firms which are small or medium scale. The risk in applying this strategy is customer retention – if a competitor launches product priced even lower, the possibility of customer retention nullifies. Also increasing costs and economic fluctuation can seriously affect the firm. Also pricing the product below industry average while maintaining the quality cannot be possible with every firm.

2) Differentiation Strategies :

When the product is differentiated with its unique feature or unique selling point (USP) in order to compete and win effectively, that is known as the differentiation strategy. Differentiate your product or service, whatever it may cost and offer to customers on a higher price (usually niche market). It is a Type of Business Strategy used by Apple, a company that promises differentiated products to its customers.

This strategy is exactly opposite of Cost Strategy, whereby here the target audience is far from being price sensitive, rather they are quality conscious or quality focused and they wouldn’t mind paying extra if its something unique they are getting which helps differentiate them along with the product.

In the case of differentiation, the initial costs are way above industry average since the offering is unique which includes more patents, IPRs and there are less or no competitors and hence the pricing is premium. Unlike Cost Leadership Strategy, in case of differentiation, customer loyalty is very high, just as profit levels and this forms an advantage. This also involves high cost of production per unit but it can be easily recovered from the above average pricing of the product. Unlike Cost leadership, many organizations can follow this strategy with their unique offerings.

The products of Apple, Rolls Royce cars form some examples of this Strategies.

In the case of services, the point of differentiation would be employee courtesy, availability, expertise and location. In spite of being almost identical, product and services can be differentiated with the help of promotions and advertising, however, the advertising for these niche products should be unique and appealing.

For ex: There has never been a celebrity endorsement for any iPhone since its inception to the recent iPhone XS and XS Max, while even Google Pixel is seen following a similar strategy for its newly launched Pixel 3 or one would find advertisement of Audi or Luxury cars or Watch brands like Tag Heuer, Rolex, and Patek Phillipe only in Business Magazines targeting businessman.

3) Focus Strategies :

As the name suggests, this strategy is applied only for a selected audience of the small market with specialized needs. The target market has unique needs and it is to cater these needs that firms focus on. It is up to the firm to charge the premium or keep it below average for these products. Usually, the firm to implement this strategy would choose the target market with low or no competitors and with the aim to achieve competitive advantage. It is one of the strongest Types of Business strategies because it has a definite demand in the market. This strategy should target market segments that are less vulnerable to substitutes or where a competition is weakest to earn the above-average return on investment.

Focus Type of Business Strategies is divided into two parts viz Focused Cost Strategy and Focused Differentiation strategy. In cost focused, the prices are tailored for the particular need to cater specific group of people. This doesn’t mean the prices are lower, on the contrary, the prices may be higher.

Ex: Chrysler vehicles has cars for regular people as well as for handicapped audience tailor-made according to their needs. Breyers Ice cream have developed special Sugar-free ice creams which are promoted as “NO SUGAR ADDED” targeting specifically to health conscious and diabetic people.

For ex: Commuters in Stockholm get a pass for metro which may be either monthly or weekly. This pass is priced at a lower price than regular unit ticket but this pass will not be valid for Airport Metro, which although run by the same company, charges higher than the usual fare. In case of Focused differentiation strategy, firms that compete based on uniqueness and target a narrow market are following a focused differentiation strategy. These firms focus on the special needs of customers and cater only to them. It may or may not have products for regular customers.

Final words, the choice of strategies as well as their implementation is crucial for business firms since the choice of strategy will help the firm in achieving sustainable competitive edge and it would also assist in long and short-term business decisions. Besides vital decisions like Marketing, budgeting, Sales forecasting, and business expansions are based on the choice and implementation of the strategy.

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The CAGE Framework identifies the Cultural, Administrative, Geographic, and Economic differences between the various countries that companies should address and take care of whilst working on and crafting international strategies. The framework can also be used to understand the patterns of capital, trade, the flow of people, and information that work as crucial factors for the organization. CAGE Framework was developed by Pankaj Ghemawat, the renowned professor of Global Strategy at the University of Navarra- IESE Business School in Barcelona, Spain.

Understanding the CAGE Framework :

The impacts of the distances and differences figured out by the CAGE Framework between the countries have been demonstrated in a quantitative manner via gravity models. It is an excellent analytical tool for the various companies and organizations that develop international strategies with an intention of the global expansion of their businesses.

When looking to expand our business into the foreign markets, any differences that arise are termed as the cultural differences between the two countries. It should be noted that cultural differences are hard to change whereas differences due to the legal and economic structures can be changed easily.

CAGE Framework helps the companies to identify the middle ground between the one size that fits all and the mass customization of the extremes that are typically applied to most global strategies and efforts towards the product development. It carefully analyzes the cultural, administrative, geographic, and economic forces and determines how similar market functions in a distinguished manner in different countries.

As a result, aftermath the identification of the countries with the common market environment, the companies are able to develop the unique bundle of products and service offerings best suited to the local market conditions and structures of the identified countries. It helps the countries to develop the new type of products and services that help in venturing into the global markets in an efficient and effective manner.

It helps the companies to have an easy access to risks involved, potential possibilities of growth and barriers of the different international markets. Owing to the rational and analytical approach, it eliminates the guesswork of selecting which country to enter for the business expansion. It also helps to identify the current range of products that are best suited and easily transplantable to the foreign markets at a minimum cost.

The distance framework helps the management of the company to assess and identify the impact of the distance on various industries and their business operations. If two or more countries differ across these dimensions of the framework, the foreign target market is riskier in nature. And the similarities suggest the great potential for growth of the company.

The analysis of the CAGE Framework helps the company to identify the odds and gaps and thereby invest in the profitable foreign markets. The application and working of CAGE Framework help the company to identify the attractive and lucrative international markets based on the raw material costs, easy access to target markets and consumers, access to potential human resources, and other such crucial business criteria’s.

However, a strong international expansion strategy is required as a back up with the help of specific resources and capabilities of the firm, irrespective of how rosy the picture of CAGE Framework and analysis is.

Practical advice by Ghemawat on using the CAGE Framework :

1. It makes the distance and differences of the various international markets clearly visible to the management and key members of the company.
2. The clear analyses of the distances across the countries help to iron out the flaws and bottlenecks that might make the company handicap as compared to the local competitors in the international market.
3. It helps the company to find out the competitive advantages that the local companies have and enjoy in the international market and this result in formulating the international expansion strategy accordingly.
4. It helps the company to compare markets from the perspective of profits and how lucrative the particular international market will be.
5. The CAGE Framework emphasizes the fact that the different types of distances and differences matter to the different extents depending on the industry domains. For example, the cultural differences affect the product preferences of the customer whereas geographic differences affect the aspects of cost of transportation if the company manufactures heavy or bulky products.

Analysis of each facet of the CAGE Framework :

1) Cultural Distance

Cultural distance is the first and foremost facet of the CAGE Framework and it is also one of the most perplexing ones for the management of the company. It is invisible in nature but it has a huge impact on the values and behaviors of the people of the country that affects the international strategy and sales of the firm. Quite many researches from all over the world have done research on the significant cultural differences amongst the various countries and here are its dimensions.

Power Distance :

Within the hierarchy and organizational structure of the firm, it signifies the distance to which the individuals accept the inequalities of various forms between the subordinates and superiors.

Uncertainty Avoidance :

The willingness of the individuals working together to coexist amidst the uncertainty about the future.

Individualism :

It harps on the fact that how the individuals living in the social value the individualistic behaviors as opposed and compared to the collective ones.

Predominant Values :

People of the country give more importance to the materialistic pleasures of life or strong emphasis is on the interpersonal relationships. It signifies that people give importance to which aspect of life, quality or quantity.

Short-term and Long-term orientation :

The focus of the people of the country is on the future rewards or they are more concerned about the aspect of stability relates to the past and present.

2) Administrative Distance

This facet of the CAGE Framework harps on the aspect of the historical and present legal and political association between the two countries. It helps to determine whether the relationship or association between the native country of the company and the particular international country will favor the business operations and the international expansion strategy or will act as an obstacle. The laws and regulations of the country can have a serious effect on the trade practices between the countries.

3) Geographic Distance

The Geographic distance determines the physical aspect of distance between the two countries such as the size of the country, the nature of transportation and information, climatic conditions, and more. It also harps of the geographic distance between the two countries in terms of miles or kilometers that separates the company from the target market or suppliers. However, the factors of the internet, social media, and technology have shrunk the distance of transportation time and now with the facility of digital products and services, the constraint of geographic distance has been almost eliminated.

4) Economic Distance

The fourth and last aspect of the CAGE Framework talks about the differences between the countries relating to income, the purchasing power of the target market, distribution of wealth, and disposable income levels. It can work as one of the biggest obstacles for the company to expand its business operations on the international level in particular countries.

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EPRG Framework was developed and introduced by Wind, Douglas, and Perlmutter and focuses on the international marketing operations of the company and the different attitudes towards the company’s involvement on the front of international marketing processes and environment. 

Anatomy of EPRG Framework :

1. The framework addresses the way the strategic decisions are made within the company and how the relationships are shaped and maintained between the headquarters of the company and its subsidiaries.
2. The way in which the business and its staff view the world is defined as international management orientations but Perlmutter identified an alternative way of classifying these orientations that are referred to in the EPRG Framework.
3. It consists of 4 stages in the international operations evolution process and the framework states that the business and the staff tend to operate in one of the four explained ways.

The 4 stages of the EPRG Framework :

1) Ethnocentric Orientation

The companies adopting or working in this way believe that home country is superior in nature and when they dwell for the opportunities in the international markets they tend to seek similarities with that of the home country. These companies make hardly any adaptations to their products to suit the taste and requirements of the new market that they are catering to and conduct little research and study on the international markets.

The head office is given more importance as compared to the overseas subsidiaries or offices situated in the international markets.  These companies ignore the potent opportunities outside the home country and they are referred to as domestic companies.

Being ethnocentric in nature, these companies work on the notion that the products that are highly successful in the home country can be sold in the international markets without any required adaptation as it is superior in nature. There is no change in terms of product specifications, price, promotion, and other aspects and is same as compared to the native market.

The norms and policies framed and followed by the headquarters need to be adhered and followed by the subsidiary companies in the overseas markets as well as. The general attitude of the senior management of the company in the home country is that they are more capable to drive the international processes and activities as compared to the employees working in the subsidiaries.

The advantage of this attitude and mindset is that the company saves the costs of hiring the qualified staff in the international markets by migrating the staff from the home country. Plus this technique helps in an affiliated and centralized corporate culture with the synergy of core competencies. One of the major disadvantages of this mindset is that showcases the cultural short-sightedness of the company.

2) Regiocentric Orientation

The company that follows the Regiocentric approach of the framework studies the similarities and differences in the world and its various operating regions and designs the strategies accordingly. The management of the company figures out the economic, social, cultural, and political similarities between the native area and overseas region and satisfy the similar needs and demands of the potential customers.

The cultural and regional identity of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh is quite similar whereas Norway and Spain that both falls in Europe are very different in terms of culture, climate, and transport amongst other aspects.

3) Geocentric Orientation

The companies following the Geocentric approach of the EPRG Framework are truly the global players as they display the act and strategy of ‘think global, act local’. They view the entire world as their potential market and take effective and efficient steps to satiate the needs and demands of the customers. They recognize the differences and similarities between the native home country and international markets and blend their ethnocentric and polycentric views working out a significant strategy for success. Their global strategy is aptly and fully responsive to the needs and wants of the local customers encouraging global marketing.

The Geocentric approach doesn’t equate nationality with the factor of superiority and the company tries to sell the best of human resources to solve the problems globally within the limits of legal and political factors. This ensures the effective and efficient use of the human resources as a result of building a strong culture and the informal channels of management that facilitates the smooth flow of work processes.

This approach tries to find a balance between both global integration and local responsiveness but there is one main disadvantage to it. The national immigration laws and policies may put certain limits to its implementation and this approach is expensive as compared to the polycentrism.

4) Polycentric Orientation

The companies following the polycentric approach see each country unique and exclusive and consider that the businesses are best run locally in the international markets. The headquarters has a little control over the activities of each of its subsidiary markets plus there is a little attempt of making any good use of ideas and practices prevailing in the other markets.

This approach lays a strong groundwork for its every subsidiary to develop its unique marketing and business strategies for success and the country’s domestic market is given equal importance. This approach is best suited for the countries with certain constraints on the front of finance, political, and culture.

As there is no need to send the skilled workforce to the other countries to maintain the factor of centralization, this approach is less expensive as compared to the ethnocentric one. However, one disadvantage of this approach is that it can restrict the career mobility of both local and foreign nationals working in the company plus reduces the chances of synergy within the firm as a whole.

Merits, demerits, an example of Ethnocentric Orientation of the EPRG Framework :

Merits of EPRG Framework

• Less expensive as no costs and efforts required for the product adaptation.
• Easy route to explore international markets with similar domestic features

Demerits of EPRG Framework

• No optimum and exploitation of international human resource opportunities
• The main focus is always on the domestic market

Examples of EPRG Framework

Ethnocentric Example – Nissan

The ethnocentric approach of Nissan was quite visible in its initial years as the cars and trucks exported to the USA were difficult to start during the cold winter months. In Japan, the car owners would cover their cars with hoods or blankets during winters and expected American’s to do the same.

Regiocentric Example – McDonald’s

In the country of India, McDonald’s’ serves the burgers without pork and beef keeping in mind the religious sentiments of the local citizens

Example of Geocentric Orientation of the EPRG Framework :

M TV

M TV caters to the local taste of India, China, and South Korea with the company broadcasting channels with Hindi Pop in India and Chinese music in China.

McDonald’s

McDonald’s offers beer in Germany and wine in France

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Founded in the year 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, Netflix now has its presence in more than 190 countries with over 83 million subscribers and is thus the world’s leading provider of on-demand video, movie streaming, and TV series.

It is an Over-the-top (OTT) video service provider which has subscription-based streaming service as its primary business offering a pool of films and TV programs majority of which are in-house produced.

Segmentation, targeting, positioning in the Marketing strategy of Netflix –

Since 2016 Netflix has stopped segmenting its members by geography and has started treating its 93 million global members as a single, cohesive audience or a community of members with similar movie and TV show preferences. Brand refers to these groups as “taste communities” and there are roughly 1,300 of them. Netflix has always used such clusters which the brand in its own jargon refers to as “Taste Doppelgangers” around the world which means people across boundaries having a similar taste for TV show genres.

Netflix uses differentiating targeting strategy in order to increase its loyal/repeat customers through its subscription-based model.

Positioned as a subscription-based video on demand platform which is easily accessible from anywhere anytime on the go on mobile/Tablets or on TV, it has rich in experience and broadcast quality video ultimately meant to fulfill the digital consumption desire of the audiences.

Mission -“ We promise our customers stellar service, our suppliers a valuable partner, our investors the prospects of sustained profitable growth, and our employees the allure of huge impact.”

Vision – “Becoming the best global entertainment distribution service. Licensing entertainment content around the world, creating markets that are accessible to filmmakers and helping content creators around the world to find a global audience.”

Tagline -“See What’s Next”

Competitive advantage in the Marketing strategy of Netflix –

1) The simplicity of User Interface

Both the cash and content positioning would be hard of any use if nobody wants to use the Netflix platform. Perfecting the user experience has been the priority for Netflix over the years. The simplest interface available on all the platforms such as the smartphone, tablet, laptop or TV is one of the major distinguishing factors for the brand.

2) Content is king

Netflix isn’t throwing together some cut-rate videos and hoping for the best. Billions of dollars are being spent on content production, bringing top-shelf writers, directors, and actors to provide with their best of work.

Netflix now is perceived as high-quality entertainment platform similar to what HBO used to be a few years back in the golden age of premium cable networks.

Netflix wants its original shows through its big production budgets to return it big dividends over time.

BCG Matrix in the Marketing strategy of Netflix –

The international streaming segment for Netflix comes under the category of stars. In the international streaming market, Netflix occupies the highest market share.

Contents that have boosted the subscribers of Netflix are, Stranger things, House of cards, The Crown, Orange is the new black and 13 reasons why Glow and last but not the least Sacred Games which was recently launched in India under co-production with Phantom Movies comes under the star segment for the brand.

Thus, International streaming seems to be the Star for Netflix.

Streaming (U.S.) has been a Cash Cow for the brand while DVD business for the brand seems to have appeared in the question mark segment as its share has reduced after online subscription model came into the picture.

Distribution strategy in the Marketing strategy of Netflix –

While internet seems to be the main source for the brand to reach the customers going ahead thus optimization across various mediums, Continuous & seamless video streaming, facility of downloading available on Wi-Fi or mobile network are some of the important features for higher acceptability of the platform in the market.

Netflix works on providing the highest possible video quality on certain Bandwidth and superior audiovisuals even in the patchy network. The site is available on the website and mobile app.

Brand equity in the Marketing strategy of Netflix –

Netflix has climbed 31 places from the last year to reach 61^st place Brand Z’s top 100 list. The brand has grown 73% in brand value from 2017 to US$20.8 billion.

Over the years Netflix has projected itself as an innovator in the entertainment Industry. Having a phenomenal brand value of $5.6 billion, the subscribers of the brand world over seems to be growing exponentially. As a part of the brand extension, Netflix has created an application named Flixchat which will advertise essential message, logo, name, and packaging.

Competitive analysis in the Marketing strategy of Netflix –

Being a market initiator Netflix in its initial years hardly faced any rivalry. Times have now changed with the internet now readily available in the third world countries competition have increased drastically for the brand over the years with local and regional players targeting with their original contents.

Major competitors for the brand include:

1. Amazon Prime
2. Hulu
3. YouTube
4. Direct TV
5. Sony PlayStation Vue
6. HBO Now
7. Sling TV
8. Hotstar
9. TV Channels
10. Cinemas
11. Piracy (One of the biggest threat for the brand which dearly affects its revenue across borders)

Most of the above-mentioned rivals play on the niche segments by broadcasting the original content through their platforms, co-producing with big production houses, aggressively acquiring films rights etc.

Market analysis in the Marketing strategy of Netflix –

With the internet penetration and smartphone market growing exponentially the market seems to be in a healthy state and holds promising future as there pool of untapped market in the underdeveloped and developing countries.

Talking about India with the government emphasizing on Digital India and rural penetration of Internet and data revolution by Jio has resulted in a drastic increase in the watch time per month by the customers in our country.

In order to remain competitive in an Indian market, Netflix has already co-produced a TV Series named Sacred Games in partnership with a well-known brand like Phantom Films.

To further penetrate the Indian Market Netflix has planned to expand its portfolio by including contents in the regional language like Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Bengali, and Gujarati.

Customer analysis in the Marketing strategy of Netflix –

With the Online video platform becoming a trend among the youngsters especially college going students and the early jobbers as it is easily available on the go and can be streamed on mobiles and tablets anywhere anytime. Customers of the company mainly include the ones who are tech-savvy consumers and are in the age group of 15-40 years and those who prefer watching movies and TV shows on the internet rather than on TV which has a lot of unwanted advertisements between the broadcast.

Promotion Mix in the Marketing strategy of Netflix –

The major source of promotion for the brand includes social media websites including YouTube. Being a globally well-known brand gives them the edge of not going to intense advertising hence the brand prefers pop-up ads, banners, hoardings and other static ads on websites.

In the past, Netflix has turned into high ranked celebrities as well in their marketing videos to boost sales and profits.

Free trial for a month has been one of their promotional strategy to lure or rather acquaint customers by making them try the service on a trial basis.

The brand also promotes its original TV series through teasers and trailers on YouTube and by strategically placing Hoardings on Public places to make people aware about their upcoming productions.

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The Technology Life Cycle can be defined as how the technology and its processes affect the business processes and impact the entire life cycle of the product offerings of the company. The stages that get impacted are the research and development phase, growth, maturity, and decline.  

Breaking Down the Technology Life Cycle :

The Technology Life Cycle is quite different from the product life cycle as the life cycle of product deals with the performance of the product at the marketplace, whereas the life cycle of the technology focuses on the various stages of the technology in the development of the product and utilization of technology in the business processes.

It also harps on the aspect of the commercial gains of the technology used in the business process or a product. The lifespan of the technologies depends on the nature of the products and the business processes. Like the technologies such as steel, cement manufacturing or paper have the larger lifespan whereas the technologies of electronic appliances or pharmaceutical have the relatively short lifespan.

The Technology Life Cycle is mainly concerned with the time and cost of developing the innovative style of technology that gives a new edge to the business with the factor of competitive advantage. It harps on the aspects of the time required for recovering the costs incurred and if the methodologies of making the technology are generating the profits required and proportionate to the costs and risks involved in making it.

The development of a competitive product can have a major impact on the entire lifecycle of the technology making it larger or shorter. Also, the loss of intellectual property rights through leakages, loss of secret elements or litigation can make the Technology Life Cycle shorter reducing its lifespan.

The management of the Technology Life Cycle is one of the most crucial and imperative business processes and an important aspect of the technology development. The adoption of technology is one of the most common facets that drive the evolution of industries along with the life cycle of the various industries.

The shape of the Technology Life Cycle is often referred to as the S curved shape. Many of the famous and renowned companies develop the technology for their own benefit and growth of the corporation rather than licensing it.

But if there is a threat of plagiarism in the Technology Life Cycle, then the companies license the same.

The 4 phases of the Technology Life Cycle :

1) Research and Development Phase

The research and development are also called as the bleeding edge as the income from the inputs being put in making the technology are negative in nature and the chances of failure of technology are quite high in nature. As the revenues are quite, the money for developing the technology is poured from your own pocket. At this stage, it is very important to take the feedback on the technology developed from the industry experts and tweak it to match as per the industry standards and to give it an edge of innovation and novelty.

2) Ascent Phase

The ascent phase of the Technology Life Cycle is also called as the leading edge as the company starts to recover the costs and expenses that have been incurred and plus the technology developed begins to gather strength and goes beyond the initial point of development to get accepted in the market. The company creates all the hype and promotion of the innovation and newness of the technology grabbing the attention from all the quarters.

3) Maturity Phase

The maturity stage arrives when the gains from the technology are high and stable but there is also a point of saturation. The technology developed is well accepted by the public but as the competitors are well aware and have caught with the realms of the technology developed, the market has reached the point of saturation. The revenues start to get slow down as the technology developed starts to become yet another commodity in the market. In order to stay relevant in the market, it is very important to make the incremental and innovative changes in the technology considering the changing dynamics of the markets and the evolving tastes of the customers. Keeping an eye on the competition is also very important at this stage.

4) Decline Phase

The decline phase is inevitable in nature most of the times and here is when the companies witness the decrease in sales of its products and there is a need or an emergence of the new and replacement of the technology. Many a time, the companies reach the point where there are no returns at all and further developments are not profitable at all. The best possible step that the company can initiate is to move out of the current technology and plant its resources on the new project that is sure to yield more profits.

The 4 stages of Technology Life Cycle :

1)  Innovation Stage

The first and foremost stage of the Technology Life Cycle represents the innovation or the birth of the new product, software, material or the processes that are a result of the thorough research and development activities. In the R & D department of the company, various new ideas are planned, developed, tested, designed, and executed depending on the company resources and the current needs and demands of the market. This stage is quite time to consume in nature as the ideas need to be tested and verified considering the various internal and external forces affecting the operations of the business.

2) Syndication Stage

The syndication stage of the Technology Life Cycle focuses on the commercialization and demonstration of the new technology developed. The products, processes or material with the optimal potential for success are utilized on the immediate basis. In the research and development departments, many innovations are put on hold and only a percentage of the same are utilized for the commercial purposes. The outcome of the same largely depends on the economic factors along with the technical and non-technical factors.

3) Diffusion Stage

This stage focuses on the penetration of the new technology developed in the market and the technology is widely accepted by its potential users owing to its innovation and novel ideation. All this results in the higher profits, enhanced brand value, and elevated revenue generation for the company making it a market leader. But it is important to take note that the demand and supply side of factors jointly influence the rate of diffusion of the technology.

4) Substitution Stage

The substitution is the last and final stage of the Technology Life Cycle and represents the decline in the use of the technology due to its replacement with another technology that is far more better, novel, and innovative in nature catering to the current needs and demands of the target market. The time frame of the substitution stage depends on the dynamics of the market and the various technical and non-technical factors influence the rate of the substitution of the technology.

Example of the Technology Life Cycle

1) Nokia

In the early 2000’s the mobile brand Nokia was one of the best of the crops and was much loved and adored by its loyal customers. The Symbian technology used in its mobile phones was an instant hit with the customers and the brand was the market leader for a very long time until the onset of IOS and Android technologies by Apple and Google that were high on the levels of futuristic ideation and innovation leading to the decline stage of Nokia and its technologies.

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Vrio Analysis can be defined as an inception of the 4 question framework that focuses on the resources and the capabilities of the organization to determine its competitive potential and advantage. 

Breaking Down the Vrio Analysis

Vrio Analysis is an analytical and a brilliant technique to evaluate the company’s resources and capabilities that result in the competitive advantage

It was developed by Jay B. Barney with an objective of evaluating the resources of the organization on the level of the microenvironment that comprises of financial resources, human resources, material resources and non-material resources such as information about the market, knowledge of the industry, and more.

The Four Questions of VRIO Framework

1) The Question of Value

The V in the framework of Vrio Analysis answers the basic questions that are the resources and capabilities are valuable for the company’s growth and development or not. And will they be able to exploit and make optimal use of the opportunity available for the growth or mitigate the threat posed at the marketplace?

If it defines one of the two aspects mentioned above then it can be considered as the strength of the company and if it does not, it is the sheer weakness of the company that needs to be worked on in a dedicated manner. However, depending on the merit of the situation and the industry domain, some of the resources and capabilities can be considered as a weakness to one company and strength to the other.

Below mentioned are the six common types of opportunities that a firm can exploit for its growth and development are:

• Cultural shift amongst the target audience
• Technological change
• Demographic change
• Economic change
• International events
• Legal and Political conditions

The five threats that the firm’s resources or capabilities could avoid or mitigate are:

• The threat of competition or rivalry
• Threat of buyers
• Threat of suppliers
• The threat of new entrants in the market
• Threat of substitutes

In both the cases of exploiting the opportunity or mitigating the threat, the end result lies in the increase of the revenues, decrement in the costs or both the scenarios depending on the merit of the situation and the play of internal and external factors affecting the operations of the company.

2) The Question of Rarity

The concept of rarity results in the competitive advantage for the firm as the firm has the valuable set of resources and capabilities that are extremely unique and special as compared to the competitors in the market and gives an edge to the firm amidst the dynamic nature of the market. The question arises on how to figure out if the firm’s resources are rare in nature and help it gives a competitive edge in the industry?

The available resources and capabilities of the firm should be able to sustain the competitive advantage being short in supply and should persist over a period of time. If both the factors are not met, the firm fails to attain the objective of competitive advantage in the market.

3) The Question of Imitability

In the framework of Vrio Analysis, the primary and main question on the front of Imitability arises that, do the firms without any set of unique resources and capabilities face the demerit of cost disadvantage for obtaining or developing it as compared to its competitor’s firms that already possess the same. The companies that have the rare and valuable resources that are quite unique in nature and are quite difficult to imitate gain the first mover advantage in the market gaining the competitive advantage.

To gain the competitive edge and attain the objectives of higher sales and elevated profits, the companies optimally harness on its rare and valuable resources to exploit the growth opportunities available or mitigate the threat posed by the external factors such as growing competition, change in the government policies or evolving tastes and preferences of the customers.

When the competitors of the company discover the same, they either ignore and continue with their business operations with the old ways with whatever amount of profits they have been earning or in the second option, they carefully understand and analyze the resources that work as the competitive advantage for the firm and try to duplicate or imitate the same.

However, if the resources are quite innovative and the resources are not that easy to access, imitation gets quite difficult. And in such as case, the company enjoys the long-term and sustained competitive advantage in the market-beating its arch-rivals and competition.

Various forms of Imitation

The imitation can be done in two forms, either through direct duplication or coming up with the substitutes. After the careful observation and analysis of the firm’s resources possessed by the firm that works in its favor as the competitive advantage, the competitive firm directly imitates. If the cost of imitation is high, the company will be able to sustain the competitive advantage on a long-term basis and if not, it will be temporary in nature. The second option for the imitating firm is to come up with the substitute to gain the similar level and form of competitive advantage.

Cost of Imitation of the resources

Special and Unique Historical Conditions through which the innovative firm gains low-cost access to exceptional resources in a particular time and space,

In the case of causal ambiguity, the imitating firm cannot figure out and analyze the factors that lead to the competitive advantage of an innovative firm,

The case of social complexity arises when the resources involved in gaining competitive advantage are based on interpersonal relationship, culture, and other social backgrounds.

When the innovative resources work as the long-term competitive advantage is duly certified through the process of Patents by the specific authorities.

4) The Question of Organization

The next aspect in the framework of Vrio Analysis is the organization that comprises of many factors that include the compensation policies, management reporting structure, and the management control systems for the entire hierarchy of the firm. The management reporting structure comprises of the aspects of the various reporting authorities and who reports to whom in the organization.

The management control system comprises the rules and regulations to make sure that the manager’s decisions are well aligned with the firm’s strategies. It consists of the regular meetings, budgeting procedures, and the other reporting activities to keep the management well informed about the day-to-day activities. The informal activities include the company’s innate culture and motivating employees to monitor each other to attain the firm’s aims and objectives.

To make the employees work in a certain order, the company comes up with the various compensation policies such as bonuses; leave salaries, travel allowances, additional vacation days to keep them motivated that will help the firm to attain the competitive advantage in the market.

Examples of Vrio Analysis :

1) Starbucks

Core competencies of the organization

• Famous and renowned brand in the market
• Excellent levels of customer experience
• Corporate leadership and a strong vision
• Zeal for continuous innovation
• Fruitful relations with the coffee farmers

Value

• Wifi and internet access at the outlets
• Huge capital investments
• Strong research and development skills
• Quality products
• Efficient human resources
• Large chain of coffee houses
• CSR image in the market
• Famous and renowned brand in the market
• Excellent levels of customer experience
• Corporate leadership and a strong vision
• Zeal for continuous innovation
• Fruitful relations with the coffee farmers

Rarity                        

• Famous and renowned brand in the market
• Excellent levels of customer experience
• Corporate leadership and a strong vision
• Zeal for continuous innovation
• Fruitful relations with the coffee farmers
• Quality products
• Employee benefits
• Well planned and selected locations

Imitability           

• Famous and renowned brand in the market
• Excellent levels of customer experience
• Corporate leadership and a strong vision
• Zeal for continuous innovation
• Fruitful relations with the coffee farmers
• Employee benefits
• CSR image
• Huge chain of coffee joints in various locations

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Inferential or descriptive statistics are often used by marketing professional to take important marketing decisions. Effective marketing strategies can open new opportunities for small businesses and can provide a secure place in the market competing against powerful businesses with high budgets. Therefore, it is crucial for a marketer to understand the concept of dependent and independent variables.

The understanding of these variables will help you provide you with a top-level view of different elements of marketing research. A marketer should know when and how to use the relationship between the dependent and independent variable to measure the success of various marketing strategies.

Employing different market strategies require investments and investments in any business is subjected to financial risks. Having the knowledge and understanding of the marketing variables helps a marketer to reduce the risks of marketing investments.

A marketer can adopt various methods like a survey or focus group or limited product launch or the data on the performance of products already in the market to understand and evaluate what elements impact the marketing outcomes. Before making any investment, a marketer should assess different variables possible to get insights on how your marketing strategies would work.

Dependent and independent variables are crucial for such measurement. They will provide you with insights and scientific methods to use various strategies and tactics to get maximum positive outputs.

1) Dependent Type of Variables

This type of variables cannot be controlled. One can see direct impacts of independent variables on dependent variables, because of this reason they are also referred to as response variables. The elements like sales growth, sales revenue, an average size of transactions, new customer inquiries, and same-store repeat sales are examples of dependent variables.

The results of dependent variables reveal whether certain marketing strategies worked or not, and which marketing strategy produced better results and which marketing strategy was a fail. This analysis enables companies to invest more in certain strategies which got huge profits to them. Assess dependent variables that have influenced your marketing goals hugely.

2) Independent Type of variables

This type of variables is controllable in nature. Marketer uses these variables to manipulate the dependent variable to gauge the change. The elements like price, promotion style, product, and place are a few examples of independent variables because these elements can be modified by a marketer at any point in time. A precise amalgamation of values of various independent variables is used to augment the output of dependent variables. You can make changes in any number of independent variables to identify unexpected impacts and interrelationships between them.

To measure the impacts of independent variables on a certain dependent variable, change in one independent variable at a time to get the clearer picture of impacts of each independent variable on the outputs of dependent variables. There can be one dependent variable and many independent variables. For example, sale revenue of a product is the dependent variable and price, promotion, and place are independent variables. The change in any of these independent variables will influence the dependent variable that is sales revenue.

Measurement of the strength of a dependent variable and an independent variable

Regression analysis, a statistical tool is used by marketing researchers to find out the strength of the relationship between an independent and dependent variable. Let’s understand this analysis with the help of an example of the sale of a deodorant. For example, a store can set various independent variables like base price, time of the day, and discount for the sale of a deodorant.

This is done not only to determine the direct impacts on the sale of deodorant but to determine the strength of the relationship between both variables such as if the price of the deodorant is low discount provided don’t affect the sales of the deodorant much. However, if the price of the deodorant is high sales of the deodorant increased rapidly after availing discount.

How to select the right variable?

Choosing the right variable is very important to see the change in the sales of a product. An independent variable like discount may work for a product and does not work for others. Besides this, having a specific dependent variable is also important to measure the impacts. For example, the sales of a single smartphone rather than the sales of all smartphone models sold by a company. The more your dependent variable is specific the more chance you have to get better outcomes after altering an independent variable.

The benefit of doing this is that you can find out a strategy that works for the sale of a particular product without risking huge investment. even you can try different ways at a different time. For example, you can change the price of a product for a certain period of time to gauge the change in the sales, then change the price back as before to measure its impacts on the revenue generated. Similarly, various independent type of variables can be tested on a specific variable to measure their impacts on the sale of the product.

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A right marketing strategy plays an important role in the success of a business. Every company chooses and spends a lot of money for the right marketing strategy to boost their sales. Powerful companies opt for more than one marketing strategies.

Lets first learn about why businesses spend millions in the marketing of their products.

1. Right marketing technique increases the visibility of the product.
2. People become familiar with your product, thus, they start trusting you.
3. Marketing creates loyalty for the brand for both prospects and existing customers.
4. Marketing builds the credibility and authority of the brand in the market.
5. Effective marketing positions a brand as an expert in the market.
6. Motivates customers to move through the purchase decision making.

You might need more than one business marketing strategy to keep your business growing. Different market strategy can be used to target different audience at different stages. In this article, you will learn about the different types of marketing strategies.

1) Business-to-consumer :

B2C market strategy is for those companies which market their products directly to consumers. These types of businesses can work online or in store. A business-to-consumer strategy is consumer driven. You must know your customers inside-out. There preferences of social media, where they live, and how much money they earn.

2) Employee marketing

The strategy of this marketing type is to overtake its employees as potential customers and brand ambassadors. We all know that companies provide employee discounts as a part of their deal. Mostly, employees buy from their employees as long as they are getting the best deals. In this way, employees become the advocate of the company.

They not only come to work and get paid, but they promote your products and thus, help you to generate revenue. They will recommend your products to their family, friends, and acquaintances. they might share about your products on social media and can refer potential employees. Therefore, never make a mistake to ignore your employees while building a market strategy. They can be loyal customers of your business if treated right.

3) Business to Business :

Business-to-business marketing takes place when a business markets its products and services to another business.

For instance, you produce equipment of machines, you are doing a business-to-business space. It requires a different approach than business-to-consumer marketing because there several more steps involved in it. You need to find out the decision makers and find out ways to persuade them to business with you. to do this, you need to build a relationship with them by providing superlative services.

4) Direct selling :

There are few products which can be sold by meeting your customers face-to-face and providing them a demonstration of your products. For example, if you selling a product used at home. You can call a group of customers in one person’s home and can provide a demonstration about how that product works.

There are companies like Amway, Vestige, Avon which apply direct selling marketing strategy to built their businesses. This market strategy is less expensive but works for a few products and it requires sales skills and an extrovert personality to convince your customers to buy products.

5) Cause marketing :

Many companies opt for this marketing technique to boost their sales. People get drawn towards the businesses which are working for a cause. They feel good knowing that their money is being used for a good cause. Therefore, there is no harm to opt for this strategy which benefits you as well as the community. To do this, you need to get into a partnership with a charity organization.

You can choose the cause of providing education to orphan children. For this, you can partner with an orphanage or an NGO working for this cause. Later, you can let your customers know so that they can add to a donation by purchasing things from you.

6) Earned Media/PR :

In the modern era, there is hardly a person who isn’t aware of this type of marketing strategy. Companies pay a lot of money to promote their products on various media platforms like newspaper, television, social media etc. They even pay celebrities to promote their products. People trusts earned media than any other sort of promotion.

7) Co-branding and affinity marketing :

By using this marketing strategy, you share your customers with businesses that compliment your own business. For example, if you are selling Yoga related products like a yoga mat, yoga pants etc. you can tie up with a famous yoga instructor to promote your products by sharing a percentage of profit with them.

If you follow yoga instructors on Instagram you must have seen them promoting products of certain brands. It is clear that co-branding or affinity marketing represents a partnership between two businesses with similar interests. They aren’t competitors to each other. Hence, there is no fear of losing your customer base. Affinity marketing refers to creating a product with another business to boost its sales.

8) Internet Marketing :

Internet marketing includes various marketing from social media, blogs, email, vlogs to landing pages. Any type of marketing that you conduct on the internet is called internet marketing. However, internet marketing requires a strategy that how and when you post your posts and how you encourage people to purchase your product.

9) Point-of-purchase marketing :

Point-of-purchase marketing strategy includes placing your product where customers make the most purchase. You must have noticed that many small products are being placed near the cash counter. This is done intentionally so that people make an impulse purchase. In addition to this, you must have experienced cashier who tried to sell your product. This is another example of POP marketing.

10) Word-of-mouth advertising :

Traditionally, word-of-mouth advertising was limited to face-to-face praise of the product. Nowadays, the method of this type of marketing has been changed.

When people mention your services or products on their social media page and give a positive review, they are doing word-of-mouth advertising of your business. You can also pay some review bloggers to write reviews about you. These days people have a tendency to read reviews about everything before making a purchase.

11) Paid media advertising :

Paid media advertising is the best solution to grow your business fast. Obviously, you will have to liquidate capital to get results. But there is Return of investment on every penny you spent. Followings are the types of paid media advertising.

• Paid search
• Paid social
• Television and radio commercial
• Display advertising
• Print ads
• Billboards

This type of marketing requires planning and specific goals for every ad’s performance. In case, your advertising is not working, don’t keep wasting your money instead think about some other ways to market your product.

12) Storytelling :

Storytelling is an emotional way to reach your audience. You can produce personal stories, brand stories or a story of one of your customers after taking their permission. There is one more trend of saying a story in exactly six words. Here writer requires great writing skills to create a short meaningful story. This type of marketing strategy helps you to win the trust and loyalty of your customers.

13) Referral Program :

This type of marketing strategy makes the use of your existing customers to get new customers on board. You pay some incentive or benefits to your customers if they ask their friends to buy your product or service. People usually do word-of-mouth marketing to get the benefit. The amount you pay to them is quite small in front of the returns you are getting. Find the way to keep the track of referrals done by your customers before giving them benefits.

14) Growth Hacking :

This type of marketing strategy is used to gain resurgence in the audience in a short span of time by hacking into one of the internet marketing strategies. There are many professionals who can do this job for you in return for money. One method is to try several marketing strategies simultaneously. You can get a huge amount of data by following this technique.

15) Networking events :

Yes, internet marketing will get your audience. But there are other marketing techniques too that you cannot do from behind the computer screen. For this, you need to step out in the real world and organize some networking events to get prospects who might enjoy your services. For example, if you are providing an online course, you can set up a booth where people can reach you and you can share knowledge with them about your course and encourage them to take the course by providing them additional discounts.

16) Content Marketing :

People enjoy participating in contests. You can use online platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or other online platforms to run contests. Organizing contest is the best way to direct traffic to your website and optimize the conversion rate. You can keep digital devices or travel tickets as prize money.

17) Retargeting :

Using this type of marketing you target people who have shown interest in your business before. For example, Facebook let you place a pixel on your website. A user will see the ad of your product on Facebook if he/she has recently visited your website.

As they already know about your brand, they will recognize it and there are high chances for them to get convert. There are other retargeting platforms too like Instagram, YouTube etc. where you can retarget your prospects.

18) Search Engine Marketing :

Everyone wants their content to appear first in a search engine using search engine optimization (SEO). Search engine marketing can help you generate a massive return on investment. To do this, you need to have unique, creative, value-driven content so that your content appears appealing to search engine. You can learn online how to use search engine optimization to market your products and services.

19) Social Media Marketing :

Businesses make the use of social media platforms to share value-rich content and directing traffic to their websites and landing pages, thereby, improving brand awareness and multiplying customers. social media marketing strategy works better if you know how to use hashtag, links, images, and videos to increase engagement.

20) Content Marketing :

This type of strategy involves sharing the content that you write of your blog or landing pages to social media platforms. It is one of the effective marketing strategies because it gets organic traffic to your blog and convert visitors into loyal followers. You need to upload value-rich data constantly to keep your followers. Therefore, you should plan your content months in advance.

21) Social media and viral marketing :

It is unpredictable that what kind of content will go viral through social shares, email, search engine etc. however, getting your business in the eyes of your audience is one of the best methods to increase your business. There are a few ways that you can try to make your content viral on the internet such as

• Post visual posts like images and videos.
• First, build your audience and then release your content.
• Produce content on a trending topic.
• Encourage your followers to share your content.
• Share emotional, inspiring, or entertaining content.
• Give an incentive for every video share.

This is the oldest type of marketing strategy. Where rather than sending emails you send postal mail to your prospect. There is one glitch in this type of marketing strategy that you can’t do cold-call. You need to have a list of qualified prospects who will not let your email go waste.

23) Inbound Marketing :

This type of market strategy is effective when you want to build a positive relationship with your prospect audience without spending too much money. This includes marketing strategies which attract your customers to your business like a magnet. You can make your presence visible on social media use an email list to share free content. As people have become blind to television advertisement these days. This type of marketing strategy will surely get their attention.

24) Influencer Marketing :

This type of marketing involves online influencers like bloggers, YouTubes to recommend your products and services to their audience. You can either give away free products or pay them to promote your business. Every influencer has its own terms and conditions. You should discuss with them before lending into partnership.

25) Behavioural Marketing :

In the present time, businesses can generate more data than ever before in history. Behavioural marketing exploits this advantage to target specific consumers. By tracking IP address, cookies, and web histories you can make sure that your audience is viewing your content at the right time.

The above were all the different marketing types and Types of Marketing strategies which can be planned and executed by a company. Hope the article helps you with coming up for strategies to run for your organization.

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In a business environment, planning and strategy are two words that you will come across frequently. It is very important to have a clear understanding of both strategies as well as planning to make use them effectively in business because they have their own strengths and purposes which aren’t interchangeable. The type of business, customers, market or competition decides whether a plan should opt or a strategy is required.

In this article, you will learn about both strategy and planning with the help of different examples and the main differences between them.

What is Strategy?

A strategy is a focused plan premeditated to achieve the objectives of the organization. It consists of both competitive moves as well as actions taken by the management of the company to achieve goals. Strategies are usually dynamic and flexible in nature that means one can changes in the strategy as per the requirement of the situation. One interesting fact about strategies is that while making a strategy practical experience counts more rather than having theoretical knowledge.

Therefore, we usually notice that in organizations well-experienced elderly people are made members because they have faced various situations in life and are well capable of designing an effective strategy. Moreover, in cricket sports, the retired player is usually made the coach of the team, because of the experience he has. With the help of his own experience, he can guide his team to prepare a strategy against a particular team.

The strategy requires a thorough study of managers on the sequence of actions, implementation timings, move or action, reactions of competitors, and result. In businesses, strategies are made for the growth and expansion of entities for merger, divestment, diversification, and acquisitions. Strategies are designed on the basis of current business situations and conditions, but no strategy can ever be perfect in this dynamic world. Therefore, it is wise to modify your strategy as per the requirement to get success.

What is Planning?

Planning is a more systematic process of thinking about the actions that are required to be taken in the future. Therefore, a plan is a sequence of steps which will be helpful in achieving the objectives of the organization. Planning is one of the most important five functions of management. The five important functions of management are planning, controlling, organizing, decision making, and motivating and leading. Planning is not only part business, but it is an integral part of many other workplaces such as schools, colleges, restaurant etc.

Well-Thought planning is required even in informal environments like home. You must have seen your parents making plans to save for your college fees or other big expenses in the future. that could be the first practical planning example that you have come across in your life. Other than that, we also have made plans to cover the huge syllabus in a limited time duration.

That could be counted as our first practical experience of planning. However, in business or informal environment planning requires good judgment skills for deciding what actions to be taken first and what should be a sequence of actions to avoid confusion later. Planning should be goal-oriented, for each goal alternative courses of action are thought and a best-suited plan is chosen to reach the destination successfully. However, no plan can ever be foolproof. There are chances that your plan might fail midway or it is not as effective as you thought it to be.

For this kind of scenarios, you should be ready with a list of alternative plans or complementary plans. A complementary plan is a plan which is designed to achieve goals within a limited period of time when an actual plan fails to provide outcome as expected. Therefore, a plan should be flexible in nature so that whenever any unexpected event occurs the plan can be modified. There are various steps involved in the planning process, which are mentioned below in their sequence.

Analyzing Opportunities -> Establishing goals -> Outlining the planning premises-> identifying alternative plans -> Evaluation of plan -> Selection -> Implementation-> Review

Difference between Strategy and Planning.

In conclusion, we can say that planning and strategy both are important for an organization to attain its objectives. As you learned above that both planning and strategy have their own strengths and limitations and are equally important for business. Moreover, you should know that a strategy is a sub-part of planning.  A strategy is a vigorous plan to realize the objectives of the organization as well as to beat the competition.

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There are many different strategic tools available for a firm which help them in decision making and deciding a way forward. One of them is SOAR analysis. SOAR analysis stands for Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results. As can be seen, SOAR analysis helps the firm in deciding various factors of the organizations, thereby helping the organization form a strategy.

Not only does SOAR analysis help the firm recognizing their key strengths and opportunities, it also helps the firm in deciding its aspirations and results. This is why SOAR analysis looks at both – The present and the future and is helpful for the firm to move forward. The strengths and opportunities look at the present whereas aspirations and results look towards the future and pave a way forward for the organization.

Importance of SOAR Analysis

• Soar analysis helps the firm in deciding the current situation the firm is in and also paves a way forward towards the future.
• Opportunities can help SOAR analysis decide the ways it can explore the market even further.
• The SOAR model can help the firm look at themselves and ways they need to improve.
• SOAR model can also be used as a leadership development initiative as well as a personal analysis platform. It helps not only companies but even individuals who plot SOAR analysis for themselves.
• SOAR Analysis is very scalable and can be adapted for organizations having multiple locations in multiple geographies.

Let us now look at each factor in the SOAR analysis

Strengths in SOAR Analysis

The strengths analysis various factors in the organization which are working right for the organization and which are the main USP’s of the organization. For example – If we analyze Coca-cola, then Branding is one major strength of Coca-cola. Similarly, distribution, the good number of employees, goodwill in the market are some other strengths of Coca-cola.

Some of the questions which can be asked are

• What differentiates us from our competition
• What are the USP’s of the brand
• Where does the brand excel above all others
• Basically a look at all positives of the organization.

Opportunities in SOAR Analysis

The second step of SOAR analysis is to analyze the opportunities for the brand in the market. This is same as the third step of SWOT analysis. By analyzing the opportunities, the firm acknowledges that there are some current opportunities which can be explored by the organization and that is what the organization can immediately explore. Note – Opportunities can change as the organization grows.

An example of an opportunity for any firm is – expanding the market to new geographies or targeting new market with new products. Similarly, launching new product variants, increasing branding and marketing are all examples of opportunities available to the firm.

Some of the questions to be asked to decide opportunities in SOAR analysis can be

• Where can we increase our business from
• Where are our competitors generating their business from and are we lacking in that region
• What else do our customers want which we can provide
• What market or product can we develop further
• Are we losing customers in a specific area? How do we retain them and increase our customer base

Aspirations in SOAR Analysis

We all know that in strategy, mission and vision play an important role. This is because they help an organization know in advance what they want to achieve in the very long term. While mission might be short term – 4-5 years, vision is the very long term and is rarely changed. Similarly, there are aspirations for the firm, which are like the mission statement and can be changed from time to time but must be there at least for a short duration before they are achieved.

Example – When Amazon started, back in 1994, its aspirations might be to become the largest books retailer in the United States. But as Amazon moved forward, it started expanding to other products as well as other geographies. Naturally, its aspirations changed over time. But the long-term vision of the company remained almost the same – “To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online”.

Point to be noted – Aspirations deal in the short term achievable wants of the firm and might include long-term wants of the firm as well.

Some of the questions to help decide aspirations for the firm

• What do we care deeply about so that we would try to achieve it?
• What do we want to achieve for our business and where do we want to see it?
• What benefits can we bring to our customers so that our customers are happy?
• What does our future look like currently and how do we want to change that?

Results in SOAR Analysis

To understand results in SOAR analysis, you should look at the article on SMART goals. The article tells us that all results should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-related. Same way, in SOAR model, you need to outline the ways to achieve a result and what will be the typical factors which will show that the result has been achieved.

Example – Google decides that it wants even further market penetration and wants more users on board its platform. This is an aspiration of google. How will google convert this into results? It can launch Gmail and attract 100 million users. Then it can launch google maps and attract even more users. Then it can launch Android OS and achieve its target result.

Stating these results in advance and then observing whether they are achieved or not will give further strategic insight to the firm and will tell the firm whether they are on the right track or not.

Some questions which can be asked to determine the results in SOAR analysis are

• What are the statistics we need to track to measure our progress?
• What is the ideal result across multiple departments to know that the goal is on the way
• What resources will be needed to achieve the results that we have stated.
• How do we change our aspirations to results to achieve our goals and define our strategy?

Thus, the above questions, when answered, give a tangible results analysis for the firm.

Difference between SWOT analysis and SOAR analysis

The SWOT analysis looks more at the overall business environment and various weaknesses as well as threats to the firm. The SOAR analysis on the other hand, has two common factors with the SWOT analysis – Strengths and opportunities. However, two things which are different then SWOT analysis are Aspirations and Results.

This shows that SOAR analysis is more of an internal strategy exercise for the firm rather than looking out towards the business environment and making the strategy. SWOT analysis is more commonly used for a firm in real markets. But if a firm wants to make a vision statement or a mission statement, then SOAR analysis can be very helpful.

If you ask my personal opinion, SWOT is much more effective then SOAR analysis. The simple reason being, SWOT helps you notice your weaknesses. if an athlete wants to improve himself at a professional level, he cannot do that without understanding the weaknesses that he has. Similarly, SOAR analysis does not analyze the weakness or threats to a firm. These are actual action points for any firm. Hence, SWOT analysis can be rated more effective for a firm’s strategic analysis.

How to do SOAR Analysis

SOAR analysis can be done in a few steps

• Objectives – Determine the objectives that you want to achieve with SOAR model
• Team – Build a team which will help you with SOAR analysis. These can be managers of different verticals with different experiences and viewpoints.
• Creative – Use creative means to come up with the best ideas. Do not interfere with creativity during the initial stages. Have an open “no questions asked” session to come up with the best and most creative ideas in all 4 quadrants.
• Plot the ideas – Plot the ideas in one of the four quadrants – Strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results. This ensures that you have the proper ideas and the proper concept and a rough SOAR analysis are ready.
• Prune – Edit the SOAR analysis so that you are left with the key SOAR factors and you can then come up with SMART goals to convert your aspirations into results looking at your strengths and opportunities.
• Delegate and Execute – Once the final SOAR analysis is ready, you need to delegate and make people responsible for each individual task in the SOAR analysis. Get the plans implemented properly.
• Track – Like the SWOT analysis, the SOAR analysis needs to be tracked at all times to determine whether the objectives are being achieved or not. If not, then the efforts need to be changed. If the objectives are being achieved, then new opportunities and new aspirations can be targeted.

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Porter’s Diamond is an economic model that is developed by Michael Porter that aims to highlight and explain on why particular industries or nations become quite competitive in a particular location and on the national and international levels.

Michael Porter is one of the highly renowned and famous authorities on the corporate strategy and economic competition. He is the founder of The Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at the Harvard Business School.

Anatomy of Porter’s Diamond

The theory and model of Porter’s Diamond were incepted and designed in order to understand the competitive edge and advantage that certain nations and groups possess owing to the certain favorable factors available to them. It also highlights the fact that how the government authorities can act as a catalyst in improvising the position of the country on the global level with the highly competitive economic environment.

It is the proactive model of economic theory that quantifies those favorable advantages that a country or region may possess as compared to the other nations and gives it a competitive edge over others in terms of growth.

The Porter’s Diamond model also suggests that countries can also formulate new factor advantages for themselves such as superior manufacturing technologies, skilled labor, and efficient human resources, technologically advanced industries, and the favorable government policies that support and elevate the country’s economy quite a few notches higher.

The primary determinants on which the country can harp for its economic growth include natural resources, population, land, and location amongst others.

Porter’s Diamond is a diagram that represents the 4 points of a diamond and highlights the 4 interrelated determinants that work as deciding factors of the national comparative economic advantage.

The 4 factors of Porter’s Diamond explained in detail:

1) Firm Strategy and Rivalry

The first factor of Porter’s Diamond model focuses on the competition within the home market from the contemporary industries that challenges the companies to come up with the novel and innovative products, efficient customer service levels, and manufacturing techniques that helps the companies to grow resulting in the overall development of the nation. It keeps the companies on their toes on the continuous and consistent basis to compete with one another.

2) Factor Condition

This factor focuses on the domestic homebuyers of the country or the local target audience that are sophisticated in nature and are quite well aware having a flair for products that are high on quality, class, and innovation. They prefer the home ground products rather than going for the international labels resulting in the growth and development of domestic and national industries.

3) Related and Supporting Industries

For the overall growth and success of the companies and the country, it is very important for all the industry domains being interconnected with one another helping each other to grow and flourish having a holistic approach in mind and the third factor of Porter’s Diamond model harps on the same. For example, a Real Estate company requires good quality raw material such as cement and steel for the construction purposes and it will procure the same from the related companies within the country rather than going for the international markets that work as a profitable deal for both the parties resulting in overall growth and development of the nation.

4) Demand Conditions

The last factor comprises of the input factors that are required for the production that includes raw material, skilled labor, expert and talented human resources, well-placed infrastructure, education, capital, and favorable weather conditions amongst other such vital factors.

Importance of Porter’s Diamond Model

1) Understanding the competitive rivalry in the market

The Porter’s Diamond model helps the companies in the highly effective and efficient manner to study the direct and indirect competition in the market. Right from who are they, how many of them are there, what is the quality of their products and services offered, what is their level of customer service and the overall experience, what is their pricing strategy, what is their sales strategy, and what is their marketing strategy along with their future plans in pipeline plus the nature and features of their products offered.

If the level of competition is very high and intense, then the company needs to be quite aggressive in its approach by coming up with the products that are novel in the ideation and innovative in nature, come up with price cuts by giving discounts to the customers, plan, design, and execute path-breaking marketing and promotional strategies, and offer the best level of customer service experience. All this helps in the retaining the existing customers converting them into the loyal ones and attract the new set of customers as well resulting in the overall growth and development of the company.

2) Understanding the power of suppliers

Suppliers that provide basic raw material for the manufacturing purposes hold quite an important place in the ecosystem of the company for its growth and development. The Porter’s Diamond Model helps in determining how many suppliers do you have, how many of them are the potential ones, how unique is their product offered, what is their customer service levels towards your company, are they catering to your competitors as well, what are their prices, and how effective will it be for you to switch from one supplier to the other.

You will be able to get the cheaper raw material if you have an option to pick and choose from many suppliers in the market but if there are fewer suppliers in the market than their position is strong and they have the power and ability to charge you more. All this impacts your profit margins and pricing strategies.

3) Understanding the power of buyers

Here you analyze that who is driving your pricing strategy, is it you or your buyers. The Porter’s Diamond model helps you determine how many buyers you have, how big are their orders, are they loyal to your brand, are they powerful enough to dictate their terms to you, and what will an impact on them if they switch from you to the other competitive brand in the market.

When you have few buyers for your product offerings, they have the more power. And once the list of your buyer’s increases, your power increases to command the premium.

4)  Understanding the threat of substitution

There is always a threat of substitution to your business that can affect your business profits and revenue generation. For example, if you are selling the women fashion apparels at your physical store for many years and with the power of the internet and social media, your customers are ordering the apparels through online portals that ensure doorstep delivery cheaper prices and saving their time and resources. Understanding the same, you have to re-plan your overall business strategy to stay relevant in the market as per the changing market dynamics.

5) Understanding the threat of new entrants in the market

There is always a threat of competition in the market from the existing players and the new entrants as well. The Porter’s Diamond model focuses on the threat of new entrants in the market understanding their foothold in the industry, types of products offered, pricing strategies, the factor of innovation, and other such vital details.

Example of Porter’s Diamond Model :

Luxury car manufacturing industry in the country of Germany

The Luxury car manufacturing industry in the country of Germany is one of the best and finest example to explain the Porter’s Diamond Model in detail as it complies will all the 4 determinant factors.

Starting with the strategy and rivalry, there are many automobile giants such as Audi and more than compete amongst them within the market and come up with the innovative and outlandish car models that high on the realms of quality and class catering to the need of the car lovers in the country and all across the globe.

The factor and demand conditions of the Porter’s Diamond model also gets fulfilled as there is no speed limit in the country of Germany and the homebuyers are the lovers of quality and innovative car models that are powerful and sophisticated. The car manufacturers cater to the needs and demands of the local target market in the highly efficient and effective way.

There are variously related and supporting industries that provide the impetus for growth and development to the car manufacturers in the country. There are iron and steel industries that provide the basic raw material, competent suppliers for other requirements, well placed IT infrastructure, expert and talented workforce, and huge capital investments from the banks and financial institutions.

There are also skilled engineers from the renowned German universities plus there is a huge focus of the government on the scientific research and technological advancements. Also, there are various favorable compliances and policies by the German government that pushes the car manufacturers to scale up the bar of excellence and innovation and all this has resulted in the car manufacturing industry of the country ruling the roost all across the world.

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Aquafina is a brand of bottled water produced by PepsiCo under purified bottled water products. The brand was first distributed in Kansas in the year 1994 and then it was more widely sold across Spain, Lebanon, Spain, Canada, Iran, Vietnam, Pakistan, India, and Turkey. The bottled water is available in various flavor like the citrus twist and berry burst. It also has a sparkling variant.  Under the Aquafina brand, various other products like wrinkle cream and lip balm are also sold.

Aquafina uses various treatment processes like ozonation, charcoal filtration and several other filtration steps to ensure 100% purified water. Aquafina is available in 1.5-liter pet bottle, 1 liter, 24-ounce and also 20-ounce variants.

Segmentation targeting and positioning in the Marketing strategy Aquafina :

Aquafina has a niche type of market segmentation. It is a product that is for everyone who is looking to have a hygienic and pure drinking water. It has identified customers with similar wants, looking to satisfy peoples need while also meeting the objectives of the organization. Under behavioral segmentation, Aquafina tries to identify various occasions when people look to drink clean water like while traveling, playing sports, concerts, food courts, and cafes, etc. At different levels, Aquafina targets the market and that is the pet bottle and bulk (3-6 gallon) based on different requirements.

Targeting :

The target audience of Aquafina is the travelers, the sports enthusiast, concert goers and also during various events like weddings, etc. The main target audience for Aquafina is the health-conscious women who are looking to drink zero calorie products and men who are on the go.

Positioning :

Aquafina is positioned in the market as a very refreshing and cost-effective beverage that fulfills the market’s need for pure water. It is positioned as a brand that provides hygienic and pure water.

Mission: As people are moving towards a healthier and safer lifestyle, so Aquafina’s mission is to provide pure and healthy drinking water to its customers

Vision: To become a recognized and respected leader in the community we serve through demonstrated knowledge, integrity and quality of our actions

Tagline: The purest part of you

Competitive advantage in the Marketing Strategy of Aquafina

Purification process :

The main advantage Aquafina has over its competitors is the technology that the company has invested in to ensure 100% pure water to its consumers. The company has a state-of-the-art process that includes complex procedures like reverse osmosis and other processes that remove chlorides, salts and other substances that can alter the consistency of Aquafina water. The filtration protocols are very carefully designed and followed.

Brand diversification :

Aquafina does not only serve bottled water but also has sparkling water and various flavored water introduced in the market. The demand for carbonated soft drinks has been falling due to the customers’ truing into healthier alternatives.  PepsiCo has changed the focus to “value-added” packaged water that is fortified with vitamins and minerals etc. The Aquafina Vitamin Splash is priced at Rs 50 and Rs 30 with very less sugar content compared to the competitors.

BCG matrix in the Marketing strategy of Aquafina :

Aquafina is valued to be more than 1000 crore brand. For PepsiCo, the Aquafina brand is on the star quadrant. The brand holds a market share of 15% and comes second after Bisleri which has around 36% market share. Aquafina is growing and doing well in the market and is catching up with Bisleri and Aquafina aims to have double the current growth in the next 5 years with double the amount of sales. The company plans to keep on increasing value-added new products into its category. Since the soft carbonated drinks category is not doing well in the market, PepsiCo has been investing a huge sum on the product development and marketing of the Aquafina brand. So Aquafina is a star brand for PepsiCo.

Distribution in the Marketing strategy of Aquafina :

The bottled water of Aquafina is present in most of the departmental stores, small local stores and also in the medical stores. PepsiCo distributes the bottled water to businesses, schools, restaurants, cafes and also stadiums with the help of third-party operators and distributors. Aquafina uses wholesalers as the middlemen who ensure that the consumers get the bottled water at ease. The brand also makes sure that the products are available in fast food joints and foot chains because the probability of bottled water getting sold with the food is quite high.

This strategy has helped improve the overall sales of the Aquafina bottles. Differentiating the products in the bottled water category is quite difficult because if the water bottles are available in the stores, consumers hardly care of about the brand when choosing the products. Aquafina uses the very strong distribution network of PepsiCo, to ensure that the products are available worldwide and easily accessible to the people.

Brand equity :

Aquafina us a leading brand in the market of bottled water. One advantage Aquafina has over other brands is that it has significantly higher market share, especially in the emerging markets. The Beverage Marketing Corporation has claimed that the bottled water will surpass the carbonated soft drink category and will become the number one beverage in the US by 2018.

PepsiCo’s ownership of the Aquafina brand is hoping to give it good alternative revenue when the soft drinks market is running all time low. PepsiCo recently tested its new Aquafina Water Stations that provide flavored sparkling water and see how well will it do in the market. Such innovative products intended to provide a unique solution for the on-the-go hydration.

 Competitive analysis in the Marketing strategy of Aquafina

Bisleri is the number one competitor for Aquafina, and it has a very high market share and completely dominates the market. However, Aquafina has better performances in emerging markets.  In India, there are a huge number of private labels and duplicate brands have taken the market share for Aquafina. The regional and local brand is hugely affecting Aquafina’s growth in the Indian market.

In the A grade towns, that is where Aquafina and Bisleri dominate the market, these brands have not been able to penetrate well in the B and C grade town, where the fight is between Aquafina and the local brands. Aquafina was the largest seller of bottled water in the USA until 2010. Other brands like Kingfisher, McDowell’s No. 1, Bailley and Kinley are also popular in the Indian market. Bisleri has the highest market share of 36%, Coca Cola’s Kinley with 35% share and Aquafina with 15% share in the market.

Providing 100% pure water is a challenge. A new study found that 90% of companies that provide bottled water are contaminated with plastic and thus to stay on top of the competition Aquafina should invest on its capabilities and R&D to ensure better quality water.

Customer analysis :

The newly flavored brand of Aquafina targets 13-19-year-old young consumers. The billion-dollar brand is mostly consumed by people who are on-the-go and are looking for a branded and trustworthy product when it comes to packaged water. The consumers expect the bottled water to be readily available, has certain purification procedures ensuring 100% safety, is handy to carry and is at a good price point and Aquafina provides all of that. The revamped flavored water will fill the gap that exists for “zero-calorie, great tasting” product ranges for PepsiCo.

Promotion Strategy :

Aquafina uses a number of traditional advertisements strategies to sell its products such as radio, print, TV and also has unique online and digital marketing strategies to make sure the brand presence is good. Aquafina also uses social media to create hype about the products and consumer-generated videos helping to create a good brand image about the products.

The bottled water market is overcrowded and a point of differentiation is highly important. Aquafina believes that if there would be no efforts for branding, the competition would be on the price points and in that case, the private labels would do extremely well. With the help of its affiliation with PepsiCo Aquafina is able to create some point of differentiation.

Aquafina also highlights its purification processes while claiming the purity of the products. The consumers tend to believe more when such processes are shown to them, the trust factor increases.

In the form of contests, coupons and other giveaways Aquafina is consistently seen promoting its products. Various sponsorships for sports promotions, like sponsorships of the New York Giants, Major League Soccer, events like these have increased the visibility of the Aquafina brand.

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Nikon is a Japanese multinational company founded on July 25^th, 2017 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The ranges of products include camera lenses, microscopes, binoculars, ophthalmic lenses, spotting scopes, rifle scopes and is the world’s leading suppliers of solutions and products based on optoelectronic and precision based technology. Nikon is especially famous for its binoculars and cameras.

They even make equipment that can be used to fabricate the semiconductors found in smartphone and PC and also measuring instruments that detect microscope defects in electronic components. They have a presence in more than 90 countries in Europe, Asia, and Europe, etc.

Segmentation targeting and positioning in the Marketing strategy Nikon :

Segmentation:

Nikon produces high-end quality lenses, cameras, and optical instruments. The brand primarily focuses on the division of photography. Under demographic segmentation, it is done according to age, salary, occupation and under psychographic segmentation interests, the mentality of people, etc. The 3 age groups that Nikon focuses on 18-35, 36-45 and 45 above.  Individuals who have an interest in photography and also sharing pictures on social media.

Target :

The first target market is the camera enthusiasts who are between the ages of 20 and 40. They are the market that is really not willing to pay the maximum for the expert gear so Nikon has developed cheaper variants for it. The other target market is the amateur photographer who hopes to take high-quality photos without much editing and have an interest in special cameras. The other target market is the professional photographers who need high-end equipment to take photography as their passion or as their occupation. Nikon targets this market with high-end cameras.

Positioning :

Nikon initially was positioned in the market as a brand that provides well equipped and extremely functional cameras but now it has shifted focus to everyday photography. The Nikon cameras are positioned to portray real people, with a cause and a mission.

Mission: By providing diverse products, services and solutions, we will continue to be a brand in which everyone can feel “Trustworthiness and Creativity”. This is our mission

Vision: Unlock the future with the power of light Unleashing the limitless possibilities of light. Striving to brighten the human experience. Focused, with purpose, on a better future for all. THIS IS THE ESSENCE OF NIKON.

Tagline: Unlock the future with the power of light

Competitive advantage in the Marketing strategy Nikon :

1) Brand heritage

Ever since its establishment in 1917, Nikon has been focusing on light and expanding the possibilities of light as a pioneer of optical technologies to the world. By leveraging the technologies it has cultivated thus far, Nikon will continue to function as the “eyes” that help enrich people and industry while providing new value for the future. Nikon will contribute to the development of image cultures on into the future.

2) Good advertising

The advertisements Nikon has is not focused towards its products but its more about what consumers can do with the products The strategy is about portraying reality and celebrating what the consumers do. The heart of the marketing strategy is co-creation. The new marketing strategy puts all the focus on consumers with a website called KeyMission which invites consumers to share their own videos and own personal missions.

Nikon has multiple Instagram accounts across the globe and uses different sets of influencers to handle those accounts. Nikon has created a great platform to display camera’s high quality and versatile features. The brand has also associated itself with the world’s top photographers and designated them as official brand ambassadors.

3) Diversified business

Since its founding, Nikon has been involved in the development of microscopes. The expertise and technologies that Nikon has accumulated over the years have helped find the practical use of regenerative medicine.  Nikon has also invested in retinal imaging diagnosis field.

Nikon has contributed hugely in the advancement of medicine and life science which has helped to improve quality of life for countless individuals. Nikon has developed semiconductor lithography systems for manufacturing semiconductors that are used in the number of electronic devices. Nikon also has partnerships with companies and universities and is contributing towards medical research. These diverse initiatives have helped Nikon have the number of alternative revenue sources.

BCG matrix in the Marketing strategy of Nikon

The imaging products are the star products for Nikon.  The imaging products include Digital SLR cameras, Mirrorless cameras, Flashes (Speedlights), Software, Accessories, and Sports Optics.  The imaging products are the major revenue source for Nikon. The precision equipment business also improved because of the change in the business strategy. The sports optics products like Fieldscopes, Loupes, Fieldmicroscope, etc. falls under the question mark category of the BCG matrix. Nikon has remained committed to using the finest selection of high-quality optics but how well it will do in the market still needs to be determined.

Distribution in the Marketing strategy of Nikon:

The overseas market of Nikon accounts for 80% of the total sales of the brand. The brand offers an extraordinary range of product from Nikon cameras to industrial equipment used for manufacturing of high-definition screen. The company has built a wide network of shops and service centers and also a very strong user base across the world. The cameras are also available online like on Amazon, Alibaba, and Flipkart, etc.  The products are also available in multi-brand stores, Nikon stores, Supermarkets, etc. The stores are located all over the world.

Nikon has established service centers in all the major urban cities and also in the suburban areas of India and also the world because the presence of service centers are the important factor that determines if the cameras will be sold or not.

Brand equity in the Marketing strategy Nikon : 

The challenge lies “At the heart of the image” and Nikon dares to take on that challenge. The brand takes an emotional appeal when talking about the company and focuses more on the brand than the products. The brand talks about how the cameras capture the unique senses in the world like wonder, hope, joy, sorrow, etc. It markets itself as the brand that captures the expressions of the world through its instruments.

It describes the riches of human experiences by creating new values for the images captured by the cameras. These experiences the brand creates for its consumers has helped reinforce the desire for the brand.

Competitive analysis in the Marketing strategy of Nikon

Nikon has a strong position in the market that has been built on broad product portfolio. It also has diversified geographic presence and the diversified business revenue which reduces the business risks and this one main advantage of Nikon.  For 2018, interchangeable lens, Canon has 49.1% share, Nikon has 24.9% share and Sony has just 13.3% share. Other competitors include companies like Olympus, Panasonic, and Fuji, etc.  Which all combined has a share of 13%. Its main competitor is Canon and Nikon must create better strategies to have a point of differentiation among the competitors.

Customer analysis :

Nikon caters to wide range of consumers who have diversified needs from amateurs to professional photographers. Nikon also produces sunglasses, lenses, and spectacles. Nikon also has the business and commercial clients through their scanners, semiconductor business, and printers. The main consumers for the camera business include the camera enthusiast, Amateur Photographer, Professional photographers, college and high school graduates. The use of social media and the need for good pictures have piqued the consumers more interest from the consumers

Promotion Strategy:

The promotional activities are carried on hoarding boards, magazine, online Videos, YouTube, etc. Stars like Priyanka Chopra, Aston Kutcher have collaborated in the promotional campaigns and ads. Several promotional offers are provided to its customers like cashback, discounted prices, lenses bundled with cameras, these strategies have helped attract new customers and retain loyal ones.

Nikon is a very social media active brand and takes part or takes stand-in events happening around the world. It even has a photography club for its existing users giving its loyal consumers a sense of belonging. Nikon also organizes photography contests and events for the photo enthusiasts, one of its most successful campaigns is the “ I am ___” campaign, and people used to fill the blank space with positive words like “brave”, “strong”, ”awesome’ etc.

It induced self-respect and creativity among the camera users, the campaign was so successful that people rushed to buy the Nikon cameras, resulting in high volume sales.

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Uniqlo is an apparel brand that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fast Retailing Co. Ltd. The brand is Japanese casual wear, retailer, manufacturer and designer. The brand is known for its high-quality casual wear, that is private labelled and is available at low prices.

The brand has grown to have more than 1300 stores worldwide and spread across 15 countries, in just a matter of 20 years. In Asia, it is the biggest apparel chain with close to 800 stores. The brand speaks of Japanese culture of quality, simplicity, and longevity. Uniqlo is a brand that sells simple apparel and aims to make life better for its consumers.

Segmentation targeting and positioning in the Marketing strategy Uniqlo :

Segmentation :

Under geographic segmentation, it targets the urban and suburban population. Under demographic segmentation, it targets all the age categories and both the genders.

People with low and middle income are mostly targeted.  Under psychographic segmentation, targets the social class who are working, middle and upper middle class.

Target :

The main target market Uniqlo is the male and female adults that are ranging from the age 18 to 40 and are looking for affordable and high-quality clothing that fits their lifestyles.

It targets the people who are looking for trendy clothes which are casual and laidback. Uniqlo apparels are not only limited to higher income people. The good quality and affordability indicate the good value for consumers. This strategy has broadened the target market because all the consumers are looking for quality clothes which are yet affordable.

Positioning :

Uniqlo has positioned itself as a modern Japanese company and aims to inspire people to dress casually. The brand has a “made for all” positioning strategy and is a brand that sells apparels that are essential, simple and helps wearers find their individualistic styles. Basically, if people are looking to find, good quality, trendy and affordable clothes, the destination is Uniqlo.

Mission: “Unlocking the Power of Clothing”. With a focus on products, supply chain, employees, stores and communities, we will change the world for the better through our business.

Vision: OUR VISION. Our vision is bold; to become the number 1 clothes retailer in the world. We truly believe that this dream can be achieved by providing the best customer service experience on the high street.

Tagline: Simple made better

Competitive advantage in the Marketing strategy Uniqlo :

Sustainability in focus :

Uniqlo has taken an initiative called “All-Product Recycling initiative” where the customers are encouraged to recycle the clothes and use them for textile industry material.

The brand with initiatives like this is trying to make a difference. With the sustainability campaign that says” give your clothes a new life”, the brand is struggling to reduce the environmental effect of its operations. It also promised to eradicate the use of all the dangerous chemicals by 2019.

Minimalism :

The brand focuses on minimalism and that is one of the strongest points for the Uniqlo and this is a point of differentiation as well or the brand.

The customers nowadays look for something that is positive to wear and that is not fussy. Uniqlo focuses on helping people express through emotion and considers it to be an art.

Brand strategy :

Uniqlo focuses on the unique functional performance of the brand with a focus on the design and innovation of the apparel.  Uniqlo differentiates itself from its competitors by with its signature innovations like Lifewear, Heatech, AIRism, etc.

The brand also gives the shoppers a superior shopping experience by impressive store management and design with positive employee culture and use of technology in-store that gives video tutorials describing the product designs.

Product development approach and efficient supply chain :

Tadashi Yanai is fond of saying that “Uniqlo is not a fashion company, it’s a technology company.” And indeed, the brand’s approach to making apparel has more in common with the iterative approach to product development embraced by the technology industry than the cyclical, trend-driven rhythm of the fast fashion retail industry.

While leading competitor Zara has built the world’s largest apparel business based on rapidly responding to fast-changing fashion trends, getting items from factory to store in approximately two weeks, Uniqlo takes the exact opposite approach, planning the production of its wardrobe essentials up to a year in advance.

Unlike its competitors who sell a large variety of trendy fashion inspired by the global runway, Uniqlo focuses on producing a few styles of urban practical basics.

BCG matrix in the Marketing strategy of Uniqlo :

Uniqlo is a subsidiary of the fashion retailing company called Fast Retailing Co. Ltd.  The company owns several other brands like Princess Tam-Tam, Theory, J Brand, Comptoir des Cotonniers, PLST, GU, etc.

According to the recent report, Uniqlo Japan profits increased 3.2 points YOY and Uniqlo Japan generated operating profit of ¥37.9 billion and revenue of ¥246.1 billion. UNIQLO International, which generated revenue of ¥291.3 billion.

The gross profit margin for Fast Retailing declined slightly as the costs increased due to heavy investments in advertising and marketing. The revenue, however, picked up, as the brand started to focus on mass trend items. The brand has huge potential to grow thus under BCG matrix, Uniqlo is a star brand for Fast Retailing.

Distribution of Uniqlo :

Uniqlo owns a highly robust supply-chain network. It has global production centers located in places like Shanghai, Dhaka, Ho Chi Minh City, Istanbul, and Jakarta. It has opened more than two thousand stores in across 19 markets.

As of March 2019, there are 50 stores located in the East and West Coasts.  The meeting for the concept of the apparels are held a year before the products are launched and the products when designed are sent across and sold to consumers worldwide.

Brand equity of Uniqlo :

The brand promise of Uniqlo is to provide performance-enhanced, high quality, basic casual wear and at affordable prices. It also has a strong delivery system to ensure the brand promise stays strong.

Uniqlo is all about simplicity and that is reflected through the brand’s marketing initiatives, operations, and communication. The brand has grown from a single men’s tailoring shop to a global casual wear brand and is now one of the most impressive brands from Asia today. With the help of Uniqlo, the parent brand aims to hit a sale of $28 billion in sales by 2020.

Competitive analysis of Uniqlo :

Under fast fashion products, under the global ranking, Uniqlo comes third in ranking and it is just below Spain’s ZARA and Sweden’s H&M.

The quick growth of Uniqlo enabled it to overcome America’s Gap which was one of the dominant basic wear. Uniqlo still needs to focus on innovation, style, and quality ensure that it reaches its ambitious goal of being the world largest fast fashion retailer.

Outside Asia, brand awareness and the footprint is relatively low compared to other brands and thus needs to tackle this through global expansion programs, marketing, and advertising.

Uniqlo is still behind Zara and H&M, however, in the recent quarter, the sales grew 31.4% in the same period compared to last year.

Customer analysis :

The basic strategy behind Uniqlo is mass appeal. The customer ranges from any economic background and demographic and across all the ages. The brand does not encourage customers to have one look, and the products are rarely patterned. The sizes are very inclusive, ranging from 3XL for men and XXL for women.

The clothes are straight forwards and also open for interpretation. The brand looks towards having emotional bonds with the customers. Uniqlo seeks to create a benchmark in the multi-cultural society and takes efforts to understand its customers.

Initially, the brand faced issues while expanding in Europe and the United States because the customer requirements and lifestyle are different. Uniqlo now is a choice of brand when people look for basics.

Promotion Strategy :

Uniqlo brand communication strategy :

Traditionally Uniqlo relied on TV commercials and marketing flyers as its main vehicle for advertising and now it is using a plethora of methods that have helped create a brand image for Uniqlo.

They use a unique in-store environment, digital marketing, celebrity brand ambassadors and different brand campaigns. Inside the stores, Uniqlo has a number of digital in-store experiences explaining the benefits of the apparel and fabrics and this strategy has helped communicate the brand philosophy very well.

Uniqlo also has celebrity endorsements which have helped it connect to the masses really well. Celebs like Japanese wheelchair Tennis champion, Shingo Kuieda, world-class pro golfer Adam Scott, etc.

Under digital marketing, Uniqlo uses creative method to woo its customers, like a clock which was featured while spliced clips, where catchy lounge music was played to match the ticking of the clock and it ran all year, like in summer, girls would be seen dancing wearing polo t-shirts and similarly for winters and at midnight they slept.

The international campaign called “Uniqlo Jump” also became very famous with its quirky video and audio that was used to advertise about the winter/ autumn collection.

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Reebok is an English apparel and footwear company and since 2005 it is a subsidiary of the sports giant Adidas. It produces and distributes ranges of products for running, fitness, clothing, and footwear.

Reebok is the sponsor of The UFC (Ultimate Fighting Champion), Spartan Race, CrossFit, etc. The headquarter of the company is in Boston Massachusetts with its regional offices in Montreal, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, and Mexico City. In the year 2010, Reebok established its brand in India.

In the Indian market, it has a share of 47% in the sports footwear and apparel category. Reebok has now expanded in Pakistan and Sri Lanka as well.

Segmentation targeting and positioning in the Marketing Strategy of Reebok

Reebok has segmented the market according to different ages and targets all the customers who want to be fit and are adventurous and sporty. It offers ranges of products on footwear, fitness equipment and apparels for men, women, and kids. The product ranges have been segmented according to age and the required comfort and design for different age groups.

Targeting :

Focusing on the consumers have been an important part of Reeboks deigns of the products and also its marketing strategy. The urban consumers from the upper-middle class are the target market.

Consumers who follow niche discipline like combat MMA and Cross-fit are also being targeted by the brand. Reebok has an exclusive deal with Cross-fit and has become the exclusive provider of apparel, footwear, and accessories for the brand.

Positioning :

Reebok’s positioning is very unique in the market and it understands that the consumers are unique and has different requirements. The positioning of Reebok is to celebrate the distinct qualities of people and appreciate what makes them who they are. It celebrates, authenticity and individuality.

In its #FitToFight campaign encouraged women to fight and be physically, mentally and socially fit. Reebok claims to be a woman-first brand and also a feminine brand.

Mission :

Always Challenge and Lead through Creativity

“At Reebok, we see the world a little differently and throughout our history have made our mark when we’ve had the courage to challenge convention. Reebok creates products and marketing programs that reflect the brand’s unlimited creative potential.”

Vision :

Fulfilling Potential 

“Reebok is dedicated to providing each and every athlete – from professional athletes to recreational runners to kids on the playground – with the opportunity, the products, and the inspiration to achieve what they are capable of. We all have the potential to do great things. As a brand, Reebok has the unique opportunity to help consumers, athletes and artists, partners and employees fulfill their true potential and reach heights they may have thought un-reachable”

Competitive Advantage of Reebok

Adidas as parent company :

Reebok was acquired by Adidas for $3.78 billion and this was a game-changing moment to help Adidas dethrone Nike from its position as no. 1. Adidas’s global presence and strong brand recognition have helped Reebok target newer markets more efficiently. Adidas has helped nurture Reebok and also big investments in advertising and marketing of Reebok.

Targeted advertising :

Reebok is a more targeted brand with a high concentration on categories such as CrossFit and has tied up with UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) and MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). The MMA is globally dominated by Tapout, Venum, Bad Boy, etc.

Strong in the women’s segment :

In International Women’s day, Reebok India released the campaign #BruisesCanBeGood. This was to honor the bruises an indication of mental toughness and physical strength of women. It was a campaign to show how important it is to teach girls and women the art of self-defense.  This campaign was along the lines of #FitToFight campaign. The strong positioning of the brand has helped it have a stronger focus and also a point of differentiation.

BCG matrix of Reebok

Reebok was acquired by the Adidas group and for the group, both the brands Reebok and Adidas fall under the star category of the BCG matrix.

Despite the tough competition faced by Reebok in the sports and fitness industry, it is doing decently well in the market. Reebok’s sales are America fell by 15% in 2017 but the brand performed well in China showing double-digit growth of 25%. The brand requires the huge investment of marketing and advertising and strong innovation to have a better foothold in the market because the sports industry is growing and the opportunities are huge.

Distribution Strategy of Reebok

The company has 100 exclusive stores spread across India and also has a retail presence from 2500 multi-brand stores. The brand has been adding one store each week and also has an ambitious plan to open a store every 72 hours. The brand also leverages the strong distribution network of Adidas in the major cities of India.

The brand has also taken advantage of the online stores and has an organized web system that handles the distribution of the products. The brand has also merged with other online stores to sell its products.

Brand equity of Reebok

In the year 2017, it obtained the status of the most valuable brand and has acquired a very high brand value of $1.2 billion. The brand has been doing well in the market and speaks of elegance and style in sports.

The innovative campaigns and product portfolio has helped build the identity of the brand. It has a unique identity, designs, reputation, and heritage. The brand has helped Adidas drive its future sales growth and improvement of profits.

The products of Reebok has a tough look, representing the extreme lifestyle. The entire brand architecture of Reebok has revolved around inspiring new heights of achievement for the consumers and for the brand itself.

Market analysis :

Reebok has implied a strategy to have a tie-up with many channels across India to promote its product at different levels, this has helped Reebok improve its market share in the urban and rural India.

Reebok has been expanding its price ranges, product variety, geographical presence and also the promotion channels. The key markets of Reebok are the Asia Pacific which includes countries like korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, China and India

The consumers love for sports is moving beyond cricket in India with the emergence of tennis, badminton, football as well as yoga and CrossFit. Sports apparel and equipment is said to become the next big industry by 2025. India’s market is doing very well with the growing economy and increasing disposable income. Reebok can have a first mover’s advantage with terms of a brand whose sole focus is fitness.

Customer analysis :

Reebok has always claimed itself to be a customer-focused brand.  To make the customer’s shopping experience smoother, it has its products displayed in different categories for ‘Walking’, ‘Aerobics’, ’tennis’ ‘cricket’, ‘CrossFit’, ‘Boxing’ etc. the main target customers of Reebok are women. It is a single place for all the equipment needed for Combat Training.

The brand is targeting more specific customers who are into CrossFit, Martial Arts, etc.  and creating a point of differentiation. This has helped Reebok gain a different set of customers that are unique from Adidas and Nike.

Promotions in the Marketing Strategy of Reebok

The brand is using channels like social media, advertisements, billboards, online advertising, TV, etc. to promote its products. Reebok is trying to establish itself as the brand focused on the women’s fitness market.

The ad campaign “Your move” focused on this matter.  For sports products, it has used celebrities like M.S. Dhoni, Rahul Dravid, etc. We see the brand doing the number of sponsorship, for instance, it sponsored sports kits for the IPL teams like Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore, etc.

The “Run Easy” campaign was very profitable for the brand that emphasized running as a social and fun activity. Reebok also promotes its products through infomercials to create impulse purchase. To promote its products the brand also puts up a clearance sale two times a year to clear its older stocks and to make consumers happy.

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The Body Shop is a British skincare, perfume, and cosmetics company and was founded in the year 1976 by Dame Anita Roddick. She started the company from a small shop in Brighton with only 25 products and now the company has grown to be worth £800 million and is present in nearly 66 countries.

The Body Shop has a range of 1000 products and sells over 3000 plus franchised and owned stores. The company is currently owned by a Brazilian cosmetic company called Natura. Initially, it was owned by L’Oréal between the year 2006 and 2017.

It was then sold to Nature on June 2017, at £880 million. Natura Cosmetics believes in cruelty-free products where no animals are harmed while making the products. It uses fresh and sustainable ingredients and has found alternative technologies for testing on animals.

Segmentation targeting and positioning in the Marketing strategy of The Body Shop :

Segmentation :

Under demographic segmentation, The Body Shop has targeted mostly women. They have recently developed products for men as well. The market has been segmented according to the different occupation like the teens, working adults, and housewives, who are between ages 15-60-year-old. Looking at the price range of the products, the high or middle-high income buy the brand’s products.

Targeting : 

The Body Shop has efficiently targeted its market, especially for women who work and want to look attractive in the workplace. Even those women who want to prevent their skin from getting dry in an air-conditioned room.  It provides women series of product ranges that products the firmness and elasticity of the skin preventing the fine lines on the face.

Positioning :

People are looking forward to maintaining a healthy lifestyle and use organic products on their skin. The Body Shop has been positioned strategically to meet these requirements. They meet the customer’s need for a healthy lifestyle by using all natural and organic ingredients like seaweed, sugarcane, aloe vera, honey, tea tree, etc. The brand puts forward the environmental concern and also campaigns against animal testing of the products. It is one of the very few cosmetic companies that promote health more than glamour and this is a very unique positioning strategy.

Mission: To dedicate our business to the pursuit of social and environmental change. To creatively balance the financial and human needs of our stakeholder’s employees, franchisees, customers, suppliers, and shareholders.

Vision:  The business of business should not just be about the money, it should be about the public good. Not private greed.

 Tagline: ‘Enrich Not Exploit’

Competitive advantage in the Marketing strategy of The Body Shop

Brand image

The Body Shop brand is seen as a trustworthy brand that makes products of great quality. The added advantage is that the products have a compelling, natural and ethical message behind the branding of the products.

This is how The Body Shop differentiates itself from another brand of beauty products. When a brand takes initiatives for a cause, it increases consumer’s affinity towards the brand. According to research 835 of the consumers are more likely to buy a product that takes environmental and social issues seriously.

Strong Advertising and Marketing

To show the consumers the impact of every pound they spent on The Body Shop product, they would show one square meter of faux-grass on the checkpoint to help the consumers visualize what they are helping to build.

The brand makes the strong promotion of corporate social responsibility and strong advertising strategies to position itself as a green company.

Brand Campaigns

The Body Shop is able to build a strong base of loyal consumers with the help of the products that the brand offers to them. The products are based out of natural ingredients.

Their campaign to “ Enrich and Not Exploit” has become quite popular. They aim to enrich all their people, products and the planet. They intend to work closely with the farmers and suppliers and also being firmly against animal testing.

BCG matrix in the Marketing strategy of The Body Shop :

Body Shop belongs to Natura & Co which is Brazilian marketer and manufacturer of beauty products. It is the largest Brazilian cosmetic brand by revenue.

The major brands it owns are The Body Shop, Natura Cosmetics, and Aesop. For the company, the Body Shop comes falls in the star category. The Body Shop is going extremely well in the market and the possibility of growth is also very high. Natura & Co has made huge investments in advertising and building of the brand. In 2017, Natura and Co claimed to have double-digit in growth due to The Body Shop.

The Body Shop’s performance was good and is expected to grow at a similar pace in 2019. Due to the huge potential of the product, The Body Shop is in the star category of the BCG matrix.

Distribution Strategy of The Body Shop :

The brand now consists of more than 300 product ranges and has more than 2500 stores worldwide. It is a global business that has over 3000 stores in more than 60 countries and employs more than 22,000 people worldwide.

Its international presence includes Japan, Korea, India, Hungary, Finland, Portugal, Finland, and Bangladesh. The brand uses multilevel marketing channel called “The Body Shop at home” which had distributors and consultants recruit people to sell and market its product and this was successfully implemented in countries like Australia, France, South Korea, etc.

The brand ensures that each of the regions that sell the products is responsible for the forecasting of the stocks There is three key distribution broad, alternative and prestige.

Prestige is the department stores and specialty stores. Broad are the drug stores, warehouse clubs, and cosmetic discounters. The alternative includes channels like direct sales, direct mail and also has an online channel for selling of the products.

Brand equity of The Body Shop:

The brand has five core values and they are supported for community trade, animal testing, activated self-esteem, protect the planet and defend human rights.

The loyal consumers convey that they choose The Body Shop because of the brand’s stand for the environment and social issues. The mental associations held by the consumers about the brand has added to the perceived value of their products.

The has brand successfully changed consumer’s perception about what to look for in consumer products and it is more than the glamorous image and expensive advertisements and more about natural ingredients and healthy products.

Competitive analysis in the Marketing strategy of The Body Shop :

The main competitor of The Body Shop is Yves Rocher, Lush, Weleda, and L’Occitane. These are the brand’s direct competitors because they run in the same markets The Body Shop does and also has a focus on environmental protection and the use of natural ingredients in their products.

Maybelline New York is not a direct competitor but is a threat to The Body Shop because they have started to position itself for environmental protection and against animal testing. Body Shop must find a point of differentiation from these brands to ensure brand loyalty.

Customer analysis of The Body Shop :

The Body Shop has a range of customers who are both men and women. The brand initially didn’t have products for men but now the focus has also been on men who are now taking care of their skin and are looking to have a comfortable bath. The brand’s main target, however, is the women between the ages 20-55 years.

According to the brand, they found that 64% of their consumers are ready to pay for a more ethical product. They also found that 83% of their consumers likely chose the retailers that took environmental and social issues seriously. It was also found that the consumers who use The Body Shop products found it very compelling The Body Shop had a strong brand image associated with its beauty products.

Promotion Strategy of The Body Shop:

The Body Shop aims to change the way beauty products are created. It just launched “Forever against Animal Testing” campaign and will be running for two years with the consistent content for two years until 2019. It teamed up with “Game OF Thrones” star Maisie Williams and number of influencers on social media for this campaign.

The whole campaign will be run consistently for two years to ensure that it creates a global impact.  The message will be put out on YouTube, blogs, and even on stores to make sure the message doesn’t go unnoticed.

The brand promotes its products and campaigns through a lot of video, social media and in-store content and less focus is put on marketing via TV. The brand is testing channels like Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat and they seem to be working extremely well for the target market who are under 35 years old

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In the year 1985, famous designer Thomas Hilfiger established Tommy Hilfiger Corporation and now it is a popular brand. The range of products sold under the brand is women’s wear, kid’s wear, and men’s wear and has a range of products like eyewear, accessories, apparels, watches, fragrances, bags, furniture, etc. They have 1400 outlets in 90 countries.

It is one of the top brands that is doing well across markets and its top sales charts in the casual wear segment across the world. The brand brought American culture into the world.

It has an extensive distribution network in more than 100 countries and the global retail sale of Tommy Hilfiger was the US $7.4 billion in 2017.

STP in the marketing strategy of Tommy Hilfiger

Under demographic segmentation of the market, the segmentation is done according to age, gender, and income. Tommy Hilfiger which is the main product line of the corporation and is influenced by classic American style and targets customers between the ages of 25 to 40 years.

The brand Hilfiger Denim is more casual in style, Hilfiger Collection is the brand for women and targets the women from age 25-40. Tommy Hilfiger Tailored has products targeted towards men and the products are described to have rich colors, precision cuts, and luxe details and targets the men between the ages 25-40.

Depending on the different customer requirements the corporation has come up with different. Tommy Hilfiger brand is targeting the upper-middle-class people. The brand has a unique positioning in the market with an inviting atmosphere and unique twists that shoes the brand’s heritage of being an all-American brand.

It is positioned as the brand that celebrates the ‘classic American cool style’.

Vision 

We are guided by a vision to drive innovation through our sustainability practices, in order to increase operational efficiency while reducing our environmental impact.

Mission 

Tommy Hilfiger’s mission is to be one of the leading sustainable designer lifestyle brands through how it creates its product, manages its operations, and connects with its communities and stakeholders.

Competitive advantage in the marketing strategy of Tommy Hilfiger 

1) Brand image 

Tommy Hilfiger is one of the leading designer brands that is doing extremely well in the market.  It enjoys a unique position in the premium designer brand.  The brand has a wide range of products that give the brand extremely high brand visibility.

The ranges of products include eyewear, watches, fragrance home furnishings and women’s wear which is marketed extremely well. The brand’s global retail sale amounted to $7.4 billion in 2017.

Tommy Hilfiger has good quality, stylish designer products that people want to be associated with.

2) Innovation 

The brand recently announced the highest tech collection called Tommy Jeans XPlore that uses Bluetooth technology to track how often a consumer wears the product and also where the consumer wears the product.

The brand seeks to find micro-community of brand ambassadors with this initiative and also offers rewards based upon each of the usages of the item. The main idea was to offer more from the brand to its loyal consumers. The app-based feature would also increase the points the customer gets when they would pass through certain locations.

These technology-based initiatives have increased the brand loyalty of consumers.

3) Global marketing strategy 

Tommy Hilfiger being one of the world’s leading designer brands engages customers through various marketing and advertising campaigns the marketing strategies are comprehensive 360° which focuses on digital marketing experiences and innovative experiences.

In the year 2018, Tommy Hilfiger celebrated the designer’s love towards pop culture, fashion, music through different brand partnerships and celebrity collaboration driving the high number of sale and also engaging new customers and making it attractive for the millennial consumers.

In 2017, the total expenditure on marketing was $180 million globally for marketing and communication initiatives.

BCG matrix in the marketing strategy of Tommy Hilfiger

Tommy Hilfiger Corporation was bought by Phillips-Van Heusen in the year 2010. Phillips-Van Heusen owns brands like Arrow etc. The Tommy Hilfiger brand falls under the category of star brand. It was also listed as the world’s most innovative companies.

The brand has created multiple campaigns and has created meaningful collaboration with pop artists across the world to capitalize on the tremendous opportunity that exists for the brand across the world. Celebrities like Hailey Baldwin and activist Winnie Harlow are associated with the brand.

The brand was ranked #8 out of the 77 brands in the L2 Global Fashion IQ index of 2018. It was also ranked as “the Most Innovative Company “ by Fast Company. Tommy Hilfiger has huge potential and thus comes under the star category of the BCG matrix.

Distribution strategy in the marketing strategy of Tommy Hilfiger

The global brand has more than 15000 associates working for the brand worldwide. Tommy Hilfiger has built an extensive network for distribution in over 100 countries with more than 1800 retail stores throughout Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, and North America.

The company has a franchise as well as owned stores model for retail. The flagship stores are the location in the major cities of the world, making it an extremely valuable brand.  The stores are in Paris, Tokyo, London, New York, etc.

Brand equity in the marketing strategy of Tommy Hilfiger 

Tommy Hilfiger has a brand image of being a premium and accessible brand. Throughout its existence it has established itself as a brand that designed products that are “classic American cool with the preppy twist” and now it is looking forward to being a more global brand.

The brand has expanded into newer markets throughout Europe and Asia and is widely available. It is focused on reaching the next generation of consumers.

The brand is becoming extremely popular among the youth. The parent company PVH spends around $175-$185 million on the annual marketing and advertising initiatives to enhance the brand equity of Tommy Hilfiger.

Tommy’s strong presence in Europe could also be used as a platform for PVH to grow brands like Arrow and Izod, which currently generate little to no revenue in Europe

Market Analysis in the marketing strategy of Tommy Hilfiger

The fashion industry is worth $ 3 trillion and has been growing consistently. Tommy Hilfiger has been taking advantage of this well-defined ecosystem. The signature style of the brand has made a reputation for itself. The main competitors are Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Gucci, Carolina Herrera, and Donna Karan, Giorgio Armani, etc.

However fast fashion companies like Forever21, Zara, and H&M have turned the table in the apparel sector and have a lasting impact on high-end brands. However Tommy Hilfiger increased its business to 22 percent to $1.1 billion, the brand is doing well through collaboration with high-end celebrities.

Labels such as American Apparel, Abercrombie & Fitch are shutting locations across countries due to lackluster sales. Coach and Ralph Lauren are facing plunging profits and are using strategies to cut back discounts.

Tommy Hilfiger’s international sales were $93 million greater than US sale. Tommy Hilfiger’s is facing huge competition from the fast fashion companies thus must stay innovative and continue its marketing efforts to make the brand more attractive to the customers.

Customer Analysis in the marketing strategy of Tommy Hilfiger

The brand targets a wide demographic and targets and attracts younger customers. It has a children’s line and also clothes designed for older customers. According to Hilfiger, he wants to keep the brand younger and keep it cool.

The recent collaboration with Gigi Hadid helped the brand get access to her 30 million fan base and it was seen that brand was able to generate double-digit sales growth after the collaboration. The brand finds an innovative way to engage and entertain the millennial consumers across the world, to become their choice of fashion.

Promotion in the marketing strategy of Tommy Hilfiger

Tommy Hilfiger brand follows a very aggressive marketing strategy and uses multiple channels to reach out to the target customers and has extremely high brand visibility. It uses newspapers ads, billboards, magazine ads, etc. for promotions and has famous celebrities as brand ambassadors like Gigi Hadid.

A new promotion strategy was introduced which allows consumers to become the brand ambassadors of the brand by creating a micro-community of brand ambassadors. The brand also offers various discounts and offers during offseason and year-end special occasions.

The point of sale promotions is used efficiently by the brand by making the store look preppy fashion. The stores are designed to demonstrate the classic cool style of the American lifestyle. The virtual reality store experience in 2015 was also a great hit.

The consumers could see the products in 360-degree reality from the front row and immediately shop for the collection. Even though it was presented only in a few flagship stores. The brand also uses online promotions to sell their products sending emails to its customers updating them about the latest collections an offer.

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In the year 1932, Herman W. Lay established a small business in Nashville, Tennessee and started selling potato chips, it then was bought by Herman and it became H. W. Lay & company, which later was owned by Frito-Lay and now is acquired by Pepsico and Lays is one of its most valuable brands.

Lays was the first snack food to have been advertised on the television. Lays now is a renowned brand that has a global presence, creating flavors that according to different tastes and culture thus maintaining a good brand name.

Segmentation targeting and positioning in the Marketing strategy Lays

Lays has segmented the market according to the various regions and is available across India and has been focusing the rural and semi-rural areas of India. Lays has segmented the market according to the age, and is most famous among the teens and also as a quick bite for the adults to enjoy.

It is not a premium product but is not consumed by lower income groups. Under the behavioral segmentation, it is heavily consumed in parties, theaters, and as a snack for hostel students.

Targeting

The brand presents diverse tastes targeting various groups of people. It has also developed products called Baked Lays’ which is used to target the calorie conscious consumer group.

One significant target business for Lays is the youthful and the youngsters, for example, the purchasers of stadiums, theaters or even at home.

Positioning

Lays is accessible all around and presents a variety of flavors. It has positioned itself as a snack that can be eaten at any time of the day for people to enjoy. It is well-known brand ambassadors and supporters during various cricket matches etc.

Initially lay’s positioning with the slogan “Can’t eat just one” focused more on the ingredient quality and the taste rather than what it offered the customer. Now the brand has repositioned itself around the statement “get your smile on” hoping to create a moment of enjoyment for the consumers.

The brand is now focusing on customer’s small moments of joy and has adapted various campaigns and activations to convey the message across stores around the world.

Mission:

To be the world’s favorite snack and always within arm’s reach.

Vision:

At Frito-Lay, delighting our consumers is job No. 1. To us, that means putting consumers first in every decision we make – from the quality and care that goes into making our snacks to the ways in which we give back to the community and care for our environment.

Our associates take pride in their jobs because our consumers deserve nothing less

Tagline:

Smile with Lay’s

Competitive advantage

Strong Global Presence :

PepsiCo has a strong presence in the global markets like Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa. Lays takes advantage of PepsiCo’s strong presence in over 100 countries.

Strong Distribution Network :

Lays has a strong advantage in terms of the distribution network since it drives on Pepsico’s distribution network which is one of the best networks in the world.

PepsiCo as a parent company :

Brand PepsiCo is one of the biggest brands in the world and is one of the largest FMCG company. This helps Lays get huge capital investments that are required for the advertisement and branding of Lays.

The food and beverage major is now trying to work on strategies to retain 45% market share of the Indian salty-snacking market which is worth over $2 billion dollars

BCG matrix in the Marketing strategy of Lays 

PepsiCo owns the No. 1 position in the salty snack business and one of the important brands is Lays. The consumption of carbonated drink has been all-time low and PepsiCo has relied on the growth of Lays.

Pepsico India aims to double its revenue from the snack business through the expansion of brands like Lays, Kurkure, Doritos, and Cheetos. Lays itself is worth more than $10 billion.

Thus in the BCG matrix, Lays brand comes under the star category because it has a high number of competitors, high expenses towards advertising and growth and is the top performer in PepsiCo’s brand portfolio.

Distribution in the Marketing strategy of Lays 

Lays uses and intensive distribution method that strategizes to stock the products in many logical outlets as possible. Since is Lays is not a premium product and has a high daily demand, it is found in the number of locations across various parts of the world and also in the semi-rural and rural areas of India.

The products are seen anywhere from grocery, supermarket, superstore, gas stations and even in the vending machines in airports, malls, and offices. The products generally reach the market through the following 3 channels that are the third-party distributor, customer warehouses, and DSD or Direct Store Delivery.

PepsiCo’s dominant position in the market helps lays to enjoy good relationships with retailers.

Brand equity 

Lays is now focusing more on the millennial customers driving its traffic to their Facebook page and becoming a relevant topic of conversation on social media. The creative flavors of Lays have become a fan favorite the recent Cheesy Garlic Bread flavor was a hit among the customers and increased 8% sales.

Lays has helped PepsiCo reach the No.1 position in the snack business and helped get substantial revenue when the carbonated drinks business was all time low.

Competitive analysis in the Marketing strategy of Lays

Lays had introduced a variety of international flavors like French Salt and Cracked Pepper, Chile Lemon, Spanish Tomato, etc. in the Indian market and had a very lukewarm response to them. The home growth competitors like Haldirams has become a household name with products like Aloo Bhujia that are created to favor the Indian taste buds.

ITC with its brands like Bingo is also a good competitor. Various healthy sacks options are available in the market like Cornitos and other multigrain snacks.  According to Nielsen, there are more than 3000 brands in the salty snacks category.

The sodium content has been reduced by 5%-25% in different variants of Lays and aims to reduce it down to 75% by 2025. Initiatives like these will help Lays stay ahead of the competition.

Customer analysis

Lays initially targeted the high school students and now is targeting the adults as well. Its main customers are young audiences interested in sports, entertainment, cinema, etc. It uses mass marketing strategies to appeal to its consumers.

PepsiCo India has now started to create Rs 5 packets in the semi-rural and rural India.  The north Indian market is targeted with the spicier variant a the south Indian market.

Promotion Strategy

The new marketing strategy of Lays is the “Lays Local” campaign that focuses on the eighty farms scattered across 27 states in India that grow the potatoes to make Indian customers have more affinity towards the brand.

The advertisements of lays are seen across various channels like newspapers, TV, magazines and other print media. The brand also has good visibility on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. To make Lays more popular among sports enthusiasts, it sponsors major sports events to make it popular among the youth.

Lays has been innovating its packaging, flavors and also the communication. Lays with its new campaign looks forward to creating a smile on the faces of the millennial consumers.

With the nonprofit campaign Operation Smile and Jordin Sparks as the brand ambassador, Lays has launched various events in the heart of Times Square putting a donation for the campaign for every bag purchased.

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Every business needs to goal-oriented having a certain and specific set of aims and objectives. It is quite vital to have goals, aims, and objectives as it helps the organization to keep the cash registers ringing and attain the pinnacle of growth and success. And with all the attributes and ethics to the formulated and followed, it is quite crucial for the management of the firm to embrace the facet of strategic planning.

It helps the firm accomplish all its long term and short term goals keeping the work environment positive and elevate the levels of profits and sales.

The Importance of Strategic Planning :

1) It gives a sense of direction to the entire team of the organization :

It is very significant for the management and the key employees of the firm to realize and follow the Importance of Strategic Planning as many a time with the increased work pressures and the rage of satisfying the customer demands and meeting the stringent deadlines, the company loses its way from the actual aims and objectives.

And it also results in the employees working on the futile tasks and there is no proper utilization of the resources. And with embracing the aspect of strategic planning, each and every member of the team gets a sense of direction and knows where to head with a properly framed plan in mind and hand. It is quite imperative to have a long term vision for the organization to grow at the marketplace.

2) Competitive edge in the market :

An organization with a plan in hand and a strategy in mind and place accomplishes its goals and objectives before its contemporaries in the market gaining a competitive edge and advantage. Strategic planning involves studying the market conditions, researching about the next moves of the competitors, coming up with the innovative product ideas, and keeping the customers happy and satisfied with the various means and measures.

And all of it results in the firm marching ahead amidst the tough and ever growing competition from the existing as well as new players in the market.

3) Innovation :

As discussed in the earlier point, understanding the Importance of Strategic Planning and following it, the firm comes up with the products and services that are high on the aspects of innovation and novelty. As with the strategic planning and inputs from the internal team, external parties, and experts; the firm plans and strategizes its next line of offerings that are unique and exclusive in the market and is sure to elevate the sales, profit margins, and brand value.

4) It makes the organization proactive in nature :

Realizing the Importance of Strategic Planning helps the organization to be more proactive rather than being reactive to the forthcoming issues and problems in attaining the goals and objectives.

Whilst accomplishing all the short term and long term objectives, problems and issues are bound to arise and when the firm follows the fundamentals of strategic planning, it becomes more proactive as it envisions and foresees the problems arriving. Hence, the management along with the key members of the team take corrective measures well before time ironing out the issues much before they hamper the brand value and profits of the firm.

5) Elevates productivity and operational efficiency :

With the proper strategy and plan in hand and mind, there is an increase in the levels of productivity and operational efficiency of the entire firm. The team knows and understands all the tasks in hand and how to attain them in the most efficient and effective manner. A properly and aptly formulated strategic plan works like a blueprint or a roadmap for the firm to attain its objectives. It also helps to maintain harmony with the members of the department and inter-departments along with the positive and healthy working atmosphere.

6) Higher sales and profits :

When the firm follows the Importance of Strategic Planning in each of its business facets and operations, it is swiftly moving towards accomplishing the aim of higher sales and profits.

As it is a universal fact that all the strategic planning and measures are undertaken by the firm to not only enhance its brand value in the market but also give a push to sales and profits to keep the cash registers ringing and stay relevant in the market amidst tough competition carving a niche for itself.

7) Keeps the employees motivated :

As mentioned above, following the route of strategic planning helps the firm get a sense of direction and the employees are well aware and apprised on how to attain the assigned short term and long term objectives. And when they are given the tasks and responsibilities as per their expertise and professional qualification along with the proper rewards, they feel highly motivated and strive their level best to accomplish the same in the most efficient manner.

8) Attracts financial investors :

The firm keeps on requiring the financial investments and funds from the outside parties such as banks, private equities, and financial investors in order to expand its business by offering the new and novel range of products and services for the customers. And it can attract good investors and banks only if it has a proper strategic plan and map in hand.

As outside parties will only instill their trust and faith in the organization if it has a strong legacy of strategic planning plus has the future plan ready as well. They are solely interested in their return on investment and profit generation.

9) Minimizes risk :

Each and every business and industry domain has to work with the factor of risk in hand. But if the firm realizes and follows the Importance of Strategic Planning and makes every move understanding the nuances and intricacies, the factor of risk is minimal. It helps the firm to envision and foresee the bottlenecks and problems that may arise in the near future and take corrective measures beforehand.

Conclusion :

For the firm to grow and expand its business operations, it is very crucial to understand and follow the Importance of Strategic Planning.

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